South Africa mourns Ramprakash Gopidayal who pioneered TV, radio programmes for local Indian community

Johannesburg, Tributes poured in for South African Indian-origin media personality Ramprakash Gopidayal, who pioneered television programmes and radio recordings for the local Indian community, as he was cremated on Friday after succumbing to illness a day before.South Africa mourns Ramprakash Gopidayal who pioneered TV, radio programmes for local Indian communityPopularly known as Ramu, Gopidayal, despite being an introverted, camera-shy man, started the first television programme for the Indian community, 'Impressions', on national state broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation , in the apartheid era.He first joined the SABC as its first Indian-origin technician in 1980.With apartheid waning, the SABC started 'Impressions', a weekly magazine programme on TV for the Indian community, in 1986. It fell upon Gopidayal to take on the task of starting an unprecedented programme from scratch.As executive producer of the programme, Gopidayal made it hugely successful, providing opportunities for young Indian-origin women to become TV stars and household names for the first time in South Africa.A keen guitarist, Gopidayal also played an instrumental role in setting up the resident band Kamal Sungeeth at the SABC radio station for the Indian community, Radio Lotus."The idea was initially to build an archive of the very scarce recordings by local Indian artists in all languages for broadcast use. But not long after it was started, we began taking the band on roadshows across the country to create a national profile for musicians and artists creating stars out of singers who had never had that opportunity before," Tansen Nepaul, who succeeded Gopidayal, told PTI on Friday.Gopidayal also groomed Nepaul to eventually take over the leadership of the group and become South Africa's leading Indian music producer."We also initiated the very first Indian songwriting competition in the country in the five main languages used here Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati and Telugu. This event saw songwriters from across the country either singing their own songs or getting others to render their compositions, making them overnight national stars," Nepaul recalled.Ramu leveraged his production role at the SABC to bring Kamal Sungeeth onto television, showcasing the band on 'Impressions' and special broadcast events. This expanded their reach from regional radio listeners to a nationwide television audience.As it grew, Gopidayal played a key role in developing, shaping, and managing the flagship television programme dedicated to highlighting South African Indian culture, music, news, and community stories.The show provided a crucial platform for local South African Indian-origin musicians, artists, and cultural figures to gain national exposure during a period when media representation for the community was extremely limited.After leaving the SABC, Gopidayal went into the cellphone industry and built a successful business there as well.He also had a stint as Station Manager at Hindvani, the first radio station exclusively for the Hindi-speaking community in South Africa.This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.