Ravi Belagere (62), the editor of Hai Bengalore! and the undisputed king of Kannada tabloid journalism, is no more. He passed away at his office late on Thursday night following a heart attack.
In the 1990s, a young Belagere from Ballari, equipped with a masters degree in history, had landed in Bengaluru with only Rs 370 in his pocket to script his success story. He founded Hai Bangalore!, a Kannada tabloid, in 1995, which became hugely popular due to its sensationalism. He jolted the docile Kannadiga readers and took them on a compelling ride into the world of crime and sleaze. Like Lankesh Patrike (that excelled in political reporting), Belagere too redefined Kannada tabloid journalism and developed a niche Kannada readership.
Belagere built his empire on the power of letters with passion, sharp focus, unparalleled diction, fearlessness and the stardust needed to make it big. The 89-odd books authored by him on crime and sleaze nurtured a niche Kannada readership. His crime show on primetime television redefined crime reportage in the state. The man was a trendsetter in crime reporting. He ventured into the dark alleys in search of crime hotspots, unravelling the ugly underbelly of the criminal world, exposing the murky dealings, exposing the secret lives of celebrities and making celebrities out of hardcore criminals by his real-life accounts of the lesser-known lives of criminals. Digging deeper into the vortex of crime and criminals, sex and sleaze, the tabloid scaled unimaginable heights.
As a norm, the popular yet controversial journalist had been declaring his assets in his tabloid for some time now. The last time, he made the declaration, he put his net worth at Rs 250 crore. He mentioned about the three houses and an apartment in Bengaluru divided among his children, farm houses in Joida and Chikmagalur, two cars and motorcycles, the employee costs of the tabloid (Rs 4,20,000), debts (Rs 4 crore) and the Prarthana Education Society (school) with 6,000-odd students and a wage bill of Rs 2 crore approximately. As he once told his critics, "I pay an income tax of Rs 54 lakh every year."
In August 2017, Belagere, who always exposed the hypocrisy of the high and the mighty and their secret love lives, ironically found his own personal relationships the talk of the town. He was arrested by the Central Crime Bureau police for allegedly hiring contract killers to kill his colleague Sunil Heggaravalli. Belagere was allegedly unhappy over Heggaravalli's friendship with his second wife. However, the sharpshooter had called off the attack at the last minute after spotting a CCTV camera at the target's residence. Belagere was booked for attempt to murder and under the Arms Act, after two firearms were recovered from his Padmanabhanagar residence. He was granted bail in the case later.
The special investigation team investigating the Gauri Lankesh murder case had stumbled upon this case during an interrogation of sharpshooters in the state.
Ravi Belagere has left behind his two wives, Lalita and Yashomati (a colleague whom he married without divorcing his first wife), and four children—two daughters and a son from his first marriage and a son from his second one. His elder daughter is married to Kannada actor Srinagara Kitty.
Two years back, in his last Khaas Baat, a very popular column, he wrote, “It is better to shut shop when the shop is doing well. I intend to close down Hai Bangalore! soon. I want to spend time reading books, listening to music. I will need at least 150 years to complete reading the books I have purchased over the years."
