Sundaram says he had raised an issue about not yet having presenters, and the only option would then have been to hire journalists at a higher salary, but the Guptas and co were "very suspicious of the journalists. They thought that they would not toe the line that they wanted to".
Sundaram: "So that's when Atul Gupta got up and suggested 'Let's hire models'..."
Sundaram says Gupta than said there's a modelling agency "that is something that we've used in the past, ask them to send a dozen models and we will train them to be presenters".
Sundaram says he had raised objections at the time about their experience and the quality of the news they would deliver - he did not want ANN7 to become a laughing stock.
Sundaram says his objections were overruled, like many others.