The awaited explosive tell-all book and first person account of Rajesh Sundaram, Indentured: Behind the Scenes at Gupta TV, of the troubled start-up times at the South African 24-hour TV news channel ANN7, will no longer be published by Jacana and talks are underway with a new possible publisher.
The former ANN7 editor who fled ANN7 and then South Africa had, and has embarrassing stories about the tumultuous launch period of ANN7 which started in August 2013 under highly embarrassing circumstances and was an on-air disaster.
In Indentured it Rajesh Sundaram lifts the lid on the highly embarrassing ANN7, and the alleged infighting and other operational scrambling which took place in the three months before ANN7 made its shocking on-air launch in 2013.
He said that the book would/will be "a factual account of my experience working in South Africa and for the Gupta family". ANN7 became known as "Gupta TV" and "Gupta News".
Jacana told me earlier this month that it will no longer be moving forward with Indentured: Behind the Scenes at Gupta TV, but didn't specify any reasons.
Rajesh Sundaram's book was due out at Christmas 2013 already, but earlier this year there were apparently some legal reservations.
A new publisher in South Africa told me earlier this month that they are now reviewing Rajesh Sundaram's manuscript with a view to publish it.
The book, if eventually published, would make for a compelling read, and provide must-read insights into a fascinating world where news, money, politics, egos and deadlines collided into a toxic cocktail of scandalous spectacle.
Rarely has so much money been thrown into a new media and television in South Africa, involving the politically connected Gupta family, the world of news, news gathering and a new 24-hour TV news channel, with intense pressure and deadlines, a lack of skills and talent behind the scenes, and severe management problems culminating in scandal.
