The motive of Bharat Express has always been ‘less views, more news’: Upendra Rai

Bharat Express successfully completed one year of operations as a news network recently. Upendra Rai, Chairman, Managing Director and Editor-In-Chief of Bharat Express News Network, sat down for a conversation with Chehneet Kaur, Senior Correspondent, exchange4media.

Rai started the conversation by sharing how the network’s past one year has been. “In the world of media, it is said, only those people stick through who can see their money flow like water. One of my ex-colleagues at Sahara used to say, in media business, you don’t spend a lot of money in one go, but you do spend small amounts over a period of time which add up to a lot,” he shared.

But the satisfaction that one gets by operating a media house that can also facilitate social service is a great feeling altogether, Rai added.

He further shared, “The past year has been easy and tough both. Easy because unlike other channels, we have never had to face political pressures to cover or not cover something. And tough because I belong to a farmer’s family and we weren’t financially very strong. In that situation, to be able to gather the funds, improvise the scale and to run a company wasn’t a child’s play. Moreover, we got some really talented people on board for Bharat Express but to make them work together amicably under one roof was another task.”

Rai’s guru in journalism has always been Uday Shankar, and he motivated Rai to start his own news channel. He advised that Rai’s journey as a journalist has come full circle and he has reached a very reputed position in the field, now, was the time for Rai to utilise and explore his entrepreneurial skills.

“Our motto has always been ‘Nation First’ and we are the voice of new India and we wanted to present less views but more news. We have been able to do that very successfully. Bharat Express never made chickens fight on screen or showed any debate wars, we just presented news as it is,” he shared.

Moving forward, Bharat Express plans to foray into the print medium as well with the same name. Rai highlighted the publications will be launched in five editions in Delhi-NCR, Lucknow, Banaras, Gorakhpur and Dehradun. But they aim to launch the first edition most probably on May 1, 2024, which is also celebrated as Press Freedom Day and Labour Day. 

Rai underlined, “There may be a slight delay of a day or two but we are trying our level best to launch it on the aforementioned date.”

Speaking of challenges Rai faced to operate a recently launched channel, the cash outflows have always been high and maintaining adequate resources was important too. Hence, revenue generation was a huge challenge for the Network.

“Secondly, forming a capable and hard-working team that is as passionate as the top management was another challenge. But, in all fairness, I have been lucky that the challenges other channels had to face in their beginning years were way more than ours and we have been able to sustain ourselves through all hardships,” said Rai.