By IANS
New Delhi : Tejeshwar Singh, publisher, theatre actor and television news reader, whose deep baritone demanded compelling attention from the viewer, died in Mussoorie Friday night of a sudden heart attack.
He was in his early sixties. Singh founded the Sage Publications (India) in 1981 and nurtured it into a prominent publishing house within a decade.
Son of distinguished diplomat Gurbachan Singh, he was also a famous television newsreader on Doordarshan in the 1980s and early 90s. His voice left a lasting imprint on television viewers of an earlier generation. He was also associated with theatre and cinema.
Sage Publications sources told IANS that Singh had a heart attack while watching television.
Sage gave other established names in the publishing world a run for their money. Singh did this by grabbing the outsourced work from Europe and the US.
He also developed a niche distributor network and with this weaned away many authors and academics from other reputed publishers. A clear-headed visionary in the field, he said that Sage, unlike some of its competitors, would not get into retail on a large scale.
“Sage is run not by these bookstores but the libraries,” he said. He argued that since Sage was not selling novels, the retail market was not important.
Tejeshwar was an established publisher when he ventured into news reading on Doordarshan, the national channel. Those were heydays of Doordarshan – it had no competitors as cable TV had not arrived in India- and Tejeshwar became a household name with his clear diction. His heavy voice and salt and pepper beard made him stand out among other newscasters on the small screen.