Social Connect with Tarana Raja

By: Hamza Shafique 

Josh 97.8 went off air overnight and with that we lost our favorite morning show, Wake Up with Jaggu and Tarana. We recently discovered her and Jaggu’s podcasts through her FB verified page. We contacted Tarana to know what's happening and requested her for our Social Connect segment. We are glad that Tarana agreed and appreciate her positive response.


How does Social Connect works? We try to get in touch with Celebs on their official social media pages and ask them for a 5 questions interview. If we get a positive reply, then we ask for an official email address to make sure we are in touch with the right person. Rest of the interview and correspondence is purely on mail to stay true to the theme of the segment.

For Tarana Raja our conversation happened through her FB certified account so no additional verification was done. So here it is, we hope you enjoy Social Connect with UAE’s most favorite morning voice Tarana Raja.

DDR-Josh 97.8 went off air overnight. What was your reaction to the news and How's life after Josh 97.8?

Tarana-Josh went off air suddenly & we found out at 9am! Last hour of our show. Looked at each other, took a deep breath & continued on. In fact, we found a listener a job on air in that hour! Life after Josh has been a mixed bag of emotions. We were all very attached to the station & of course were gutted that it shut down, but then such is life. It has its ups & downs & you have to learn to deal. Some of us have moved onto to different countries, different jobs. Some of us are still here freelancing. Jaggu & I have started our own content creation company called 24 Elephants Media & we produce radio, TV & digital content.

DDR-What is Jaggu and Tarana philosophy and What should we expect from podcasts?

Tarana-The Jaggu &Tarana philosophy has always been intelligent & irreverent presenting of a variety of topics. We believe that people are open to all kind of interesting things & never talk down or dumb down for listeners because we believe our listeners are just like us. Normal, chill people who can laugh at things as well as themselves. That's the flavor you can expect from our podcasts just like our on-radio show! Except we do slightly more risqué stuff because we can!

DDR-How different is doing podcast vs live morning shows? Any creative liberties?

Tarana- While content can be similar, the style of presenting differs. On radio, you have to keep things tight & finish your thought in 2 minutes whereas on the podcast you can talk leisurely & take as long as it needs. Doesn't mean you can ramble on but it does give you breathing space to nicely build the story & discuss things. You can also take certain liberties with language & content because there are no restrictions.

DDR-How hard is it to be true to yourself and commercially successfully?

Tarana-It's very hard! But that's how we operate. We've always believed in keeping things real & talking to listeners on a one to one basis without dumbing things down to appease the so-called masses. I believe the masses are unnecessarily considered dumb & ill informed. They caters to the lowest common denominator so does radio, at least in India. But we think that even the lowest common denominator is open to intelligent interesting content. We just have to believe the best in people. It's easier to do quality work now with digital platforms being available vs earlier. So, it's tough but not that tough.

DDR-Are you planning to continue living in UAE and any future projects where we can see Jaggu and Tarana?

Tarana- For now, Jaggu & I live in the UAE where we will continue to produce content for the region as well as abroad through our new company. For now, you can catch our podcast on ITunes, Audioboom as well as Saavn. We're also hosting a Cricket Quiz show for the Colors channel on TV & that starts on March 26th, 8pm on Colors in the Mena region.

DDR-On a personal note I want to add that I am sad that I never got the chance to play speedy sing with you guys, Wish you and your company all the best for future.

Tarana-And inshAllah one day soon Speedy Sing will be Hamza, Thankyou