Having done his D. Phil. from the University of Allahabad, Vijay Rana joined the BBC Hindi Service in Bush House, London in 1982 and rose to become its Radio Editor. Almost two decades later he voluntarily left the BBC to lead a creative life.

 

He now edits NRIfm.com, one of the UK’s most popular Indian websites aimed at promoting Indian art, history, and culture.
 

He also writes for the Indian Express. In the past he has contributed to India Today, The Times, BBC Online and several Hindi newspapers, like Danik Jagaran, Prabhat Khabar, Danik Hindustan.

He has produced four documentary films for Doordarshan.  In 2015, he produced a documentary to celebrate the 100 years of Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram.

He has been filming the city of Varanasi for the last four years and has recently produced a documentary called Banaras: The Story of India’s Sacred City.

As part of his community charity work, he has been editing and publishing a hugely popular free community wellbeing magazine, Health & Happiness 4 You for the last nine years.

 

Vijay Rana takes keen interest in portrait and landscape photography and photographed many of India’s famous people and sacred sites.

In 2012, during the Johannesburg Vishwa Hindi Sammelan, he received a Government of India award honouring his contribution to Hindi journalism.