At this point we’ve seen or read enough about the infamous Karan Thapar interview with Jayalalithaa on BBC’s HARDtalk India in 2004. Thapar maintained his ‘professional’ demeanour as he asked what Amma called “unpleasant questions”. It ended with Jayalalithaa snapping at him and tossing the mic on the table, leaving without a word or a handshake.

Of the many interviews that Amma has given over the course of her career, this one, seemed to have haunted her the most. That isn’t the opinion of Newslaundry but that of the Managing Editor of The NewsMinute, Dhanya Rajendran, who has interviewed her on several occasions.

While with Times Now, Rajendran recalls a conversation with Amma after Arnab Goswami’s Frankly Speaking with Jayalalithaa in 2011.

So after Arnab finished his intv with her in 2011, we were chatting with her. When asked if the intv was fine she said ‘yes yes’

While it might be debatable who if anyone came out of that interview looking particularly good, Jayalalithaa certainly thought that she had defended herself against Thapar.

Then she asked if we had seen the Karan Thapar intv. And she was quite happy with the way she gave it back (Can’t remember exact words)

She also chuckled and said that someone told her that a college had Thapar interview as curriculum of how not to conduct yourself in an intv

1 thing is for sure. She had never forgotten that interview. But my impression from what she said was that she felt she emerged looking good

And if you’re one of the few people who hasn’t seen it, here you go.