DD changes logo colours from red to orange
The change in the branding, set design, logo and general visual aesthetics was announced in social media posts on April 16
Prasar Bharati, the government-owned broadcaster, has changed the logo for its Hindi news channel, DD News, from red to orange, drawing criticism from the opposition and media experts about ‘saffronisation’ of the channel given the colour’s association with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The change in the branding, set design, logo and general visual aesthetics was announced in social media posts on April 16.
Gaurav Dwivedi, the CEO of Prasar Bharati, dismissed criticism. “The colour is orange. Six to seven months ago, we revamped the DD India [English news channel] logo to the same colour ahead of the G20. Thus, two news channels from the same group now follow the same visual aesthetic,” he said. The logo of DD National, which broadcasts general entertainment and news programmes in English and Hindi, was also updated last year to saffron/orange and blue last year, he said. “Not just the logo colour, we have redone our equipment and studios as well,” he said.
“The logo colours have changed multiple times over decades and different colour combinations have been tried. The visual aesthetics need to be refreshed to differentiate the channel,” Dwivedi said.
To be sure, the first Doordarshan logo, which was selected by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi and broadcast for the first time along with the theme music composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain Khan on April 1, 1976, was an orange logo against a green background.
Dwivedi said that the association of the colour with Hindutva and the BJP were not a consideration. “That is absolutely not a consideration as far as we are concerned. Orange, yellow and black have the highest recall value. This is scientific,” he said.
Jawhar Sircar, who was the CEO of Prasar Bharati from 2012 to 2016 and is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Trinamool Congress, called it another form of “saffronisation” and called Prasar Bharati “Prachar Bharati”.
“This is clearly saffronisation which is happening across institutions. If you enter the Rajya Sabha in the new Parliament building, the colours and aesthetics have been changed from historical maroon/red to saffron. Half the staff of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha now wear saffron bandhgalas which were earlier steel grey/blue. This was seen in the G20 logo as well which was a lotus against a saffron background. This is an optical construct where the identity of the party and the state are merged together. This is part of a totalitarian regime where you cannot differentiate the party from the state,” Sircar said.
