Rangaraj Pandey
Rangaraj Pandey Ragunathacharya is an Indian actor and a journalist. He started his career at Dinamalar and Visual Media Career at Thanthi TV, where he is known to have helped it emerge as a popular Tamil channel. He left to start his YouTube Channel. He is the Founder and CEO of Chankyaa network.
Early life and education
He was born to a family of North Indian origin in Srivilliputhur. His parents who were originally from Buxar district, Bihar. Pandey's parents migrated to Tamil Nadu in search of better life before his birth. He did his schooling at a Tamil medium government school in Srivilliputhur. He pursued a Master of Arts degree in Tamil literature, from Madurai Kamaraj University. Pandey currently settled in Chennai along with his family.Career
Pandey’s interest towards journalism started at young age. While studying in first standard, he came out with a handwritten magazine. Second standard, he worked in the Tamil daily newspaper Dinamalar. He started the well-known satire column “Doubtu Dhanabalu” a fictional character who mocks the day to day political discourse in Tamil Nadu and pan-India.His television interviews with major Indian celebrities and politicians on Thanthi TV earned him acclaim, particularly for his bold questions and interrogative interviewing style. He hosted the talk show Kelvikku Enna Badhil for over 150 episodes. Some of his notable interviews were with Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and BCCI head N. Srinivasan.
His prime time program, ‘'Ayutha Ezhuthu'‘, a news debate program based on current affairs broadcast on Thanthi TV. He is renowned for his simple and spontaneous questions style of TV anchoring, though it invites a few debates as well, mostly related to religious, communal and political issues. He resigned his post and quit Thanthi TV on 9 December 2018.
He currently hosts a personal blog channel on YouTube called Chanakyaa.
Acting
In 2019, he was roped in to make his acting debut alongside Ajith Kumar in Nerkonda Paarvai produced by Boney Kapoor.Awards and accolades
| Year | Award | Honouring body |
| 2018 | The Most Talked About Host Award | Galatta Nakshathra Awards |