Childhood and youth
Otar Shalvovich Kushanashvili was born in ancient Georgian Kutaisi into a large family. Father Shalva Kushanashvili, a tractor driver by profession, and mother Nelly Gogokhia, who worked as a castellan, raised five children. The father of the future journalist belonged to the small mountainous Kist ethnicity. This ethnic group was related to the Muslim religion.
Journalism began to attract Otar in middle school. Sociable, emotional and erudite, Kushanashvili did not see himself in any other profession. It seems that communication with the outside world and the desire to speak out on any issue, whether someone likes it or not, were in his blood.
The writing test took place in the local Kutaisskaya Pravda newspaper. The schoolboy read a lot, including the authoritative Literary Newspaper. And I didn’t just read, but wrote to the publication’s famous authors, such as Stanislav Rassadin and Lev Anninsky.
Otar Kushanashvili: Messi - you're a soap bubble!
https://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/722338 Published by Soviet Sport Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Otar Kushanashvili in his youth
Once upon a time, Anninsky, clearly provoked by the amazing sincerity bordering on shockingness of a Georgian youth, wrote to a journalist that “Chingiz Aitmatov is a bad writer! You should at least read Nodar Dumbadze. Our writer will be stronger!” Kushanashvili decided to answer. Otar later said that when he received a response from a capital celebrity, he kissed the letter and cried out of an overabundance of feelings.
After graduating from school, Otar Kushanashvili entered Tbilisi University. Of course, I chose the Faculty of Journalism. Soon the young man was expelled, according to the journalist, for behavior unworthy of a Georgian and too long a tongue.
The guy was drafted into the army. After serving, Otar decided not to waste his time on trifles and set off to conquer Moscow. Kushanashvili’s assistance at the first stage was provided by journalist Yuri Shchekochikhin, with whom the guy corresponded from a young age. He got the young man a job in a communal apartment and gave him money for the first time.
The capital did not immediately open its hospitable embrace to the visiting Georgian. Kushanashvili washed the floors at the Paveletsky station during the day, worked as a school watchman at night and tirelessly sent out resumes to various Moscow publications. Of the 35 editors Otar approached, only one responded.
Study and first attempt at writing journalist Otar Kushanashvili
Since childhood, Kushanashvili has been attracted to journalism. As a schoolboy, he began publishing his articles in the Kutaisskaya Pravda newspaper and wrote to the authors of Literaturnaya Gazeta, including the literary critic Lev Anninsky. Having received an answer from a literary critic at the age of 14, he kissed the lines of the letter and, from an excess of feelings, cried.
Otar Kushanashvili was once left without teeth
After graduating from school, he entered the Faculty of Journalism at Tbilisi State University. However, according to Otar, he was expelled from there in disgrace for his long tongue and allegedly unworthy behavior of a Georgian. After serving in the army, returning to his native Kutaisi and facing unemployment prevailing there, in 1992 he decided to go to Moscow. There, I couldn’t get a job in the media for a long time because I didn’t speak Russian well.
But fate turned out to be favorable to the persistent and adamant young man in his desire to become a reporter; Evgeny Dodolev took him to work for the newspaper “New Look”. And within six months he was able to prepare his first material, which was immediately awarded an editorial prize, publishing an interview with actress Vera Glagoleva and film playwright and screenwriter Viktor Merezhko.
Personal life
Otar Kushanashvili is a happy father of nine children, but his personal life has not been easy. The first daughter Daria was born in 1996. Her mother was Natalya Melnik, whom Otar met in Moskovskaya Pravda. The relationship between the journalist and his chosen one was not easy - for six years the man did not communicate with his daughter.
Sons Georgy and Nikolos were born from the journalist’s relationship with Olga Kurochkina. Kushanashvili’s chosen one lives in Kyiv with her children. Her father is one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in Ukraine. The second daughter Arina was born from the reporter’s relationship with his chosen one named Elena. Today she is engaged in poetry.
In his only marriage with Maria Yakimova, Otar Kushanashvili had a son, Fyodor. The couple planned a long-term relationship, but at a difficult moment for the journalist, when he lost his job, Maria decided to break up with him. According to the reporter, he still does not understand the reasons for this divorce. Today Otar does not communicate with Fedor. Later, Yakimova married another man, and the boy changed his last name.
Otar Kushanashvili’s personal life after breaking up with Masha only made sense when he met Irina Kiseleva. The girl also had nothing to do with the world of television and show business - she worked as a bank lawyer. To this union a daughter, Elina, was born.
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Otar Kushanashvili and his son Daniil (left) together with his girlfriend Marina Zotova and her child.
The relationship was destroyed by the journalist’s addiction to drugs and alcohol. In the interview, he notes that at that moment he was on the verge of death. When they parted, Irina and Otar promised each other never to meet again.
The son of Mamuk was born in union with the girl Alena. The Georgian’s chosen one wanted to help him overcome his drug addiction, but at that time Kushanashvili was not yet ready to return to normal life.
It took time for the journalist to recover. At a new stage in his life, he met culinary blogger Olga, with whom his son Daniil was born. Now the couple lives together and is raising a child. The journalist has another son, Roman. His mother was a girl named Natalya.
Otar Kushanashvili shares his thoughts not only in the format of officially published books or television programs on federal channels. The journalist is present on social networks and other platforms for exchanging opinions: his photos appear on VKontakte, Twitter and Instagram. In addition, the TV presenter maintains a blog on the LiveJournal platform, where he speaks extensively on topics that interest him.
At some point, Kushanashvili began to experience problems with excess weight. In 2020, the TV presenter lost weight on his own, simply by limiting himself in food. His weight with a height of 173 cm reached 78 kg. Having lost 14 kg, the journalist announced that he plans to have a facelift and blepharoplasty of the lower eyelids.
Journalism and television
The creative biography of Otar Kushanashvili began in the newspaper “New Look”, which was founded by Evgeny Dodolev. The persistent Georgian guy was hired as a correspondent. Otar had a hard time: he had to thoroughly master Russian grammar.
Kushanashvili turned out to be a capable and persistent young man. Just six months later, the young journalist was awarded an editorial prize for an excellent interview taken with Vera Glagoleva and Viktor Merezhko.
In his youth, Otaru could not sit still: he energetically made his way everywhere, knowing full well that water would not flow under a lying stone. Kushanashvili met the head of the TV-6 television channel, Ivan Demidov. He immediately realized that such a guy, impudent and without complexes, would be of great use to him in promoting the new project “Sharks of the Feather”.
Otar Kushanashvili did not disappoint the hopes placed by Demidov. From the first broadcasts, the journalist made a name for himself and raised the rating of the program. Guest show business stars were shocked by this guy’s provocative questions.
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Otar Kushanashvili and Leonid Agutin
Otar Kushanashvili was not at all timid and did not feel any trepidation in front of people whom the whole country knew. For example, he asked Valery Leontyev if he was “straight” and whether he slept with his own Great Dane. Although the singer was shocked, he did not suffer from a lack of sense of humor and self-control - he managed to gracefully fend off the “shark of the pen.”
However, not everyone had such self-control as Leontyev. The now deceased singer and fashion model Natalia Medvedeva, offended by Kushanashvili’s antics, threw a microphone at him.
And Stanislav Rassadin wrote about the new scandalous star in an author’s article that “in this disgusting couple, attacking decent people with indecent questions,” the journalist had difficulty recognizing that wonderful young man from Kutaisi, who wrote him naive, semi-literate, but full of fire letters. Rassadin called Kushanashvili a “changeling” and regretted that the era of such people had come.
It seems that the dubious fame of a hardened cynic and provocateur has ceased to please Otar himself. The TV presenter realized that in pursuit of ratings he had crossed the forbidden line, so he left the TV show.
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Otar Kushanashvili and Lolita Milyavskaya
However, Otar Kushanashvili was not going to change radically. Soon the presenter was attacked by Sergei Lazarev, whose vocal abilities (or rather, lack thereof) the journalist publicly declared.
Otar had no intention of stopping. After all, outrageousness and scandals are part of a journalist’s image. Kushanashvili was paid money for this. One day a man “modestly” admitted that there should be no compromises for literary geniuses. And he stated that he was forced to “sell himself so that his children would not experience need.”
Otar did not ignore politicians either. For example, in 2008, a journalist called Mikheil Saakashvili “a disgrace to the nation,” but later radically changed his opinion about politics.
Not all celebrities were subjected to derogatory criticism from the outrageous journalist. For example, Kushanashvili called Yuri Aizenshpis a great man, considered Igor Sorin an unrecognized genius, and spoke of Ksenia Sobchak as the smartest girl he knew, who never allows herself to offend the weak. Among the stars of Russian show business respected by Kushanashvili were Joseph Kobzon, Valery Meladze and Leonid Agutin.
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Otar Kushanashvili and Vladimir Vinokur
In the mid-1990s, Otar had already become a universally recognized star of Russian show business. And it doesn’t matter that many people used the prefix “scandalous” to the word “star”: no one disputed the journalist’s popularity. In 1995, Kushanashvili headed the weekly “Musical Truth”, which was then called “MuzOBOZ”. As part of the project, he conducted more than 300 interviews with celebrities.
At the beginning of 1997, Otar began conducting music and information projects “Party Zone” and “Obozzz-show” together with Lera Kudryavtseva and Gosha Kutsenko. Later, as a TV presenter, he appeared in the programs “Big Jackpot” on STS, “On the Boulevard” and “Time is Money” on the DTV channel, “What?!” on KP-TV. He also hosted the quiz “Smart Found!” on the channel “360° Moscow Region”.
Kushanashvili also appeared on the radio. At various times, he worked as a presenter of programs on Europe Plus and Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda. He wrote columns for the newspaper “Arguments and Truth”, magazines “Om”, “Secret&Taina” and Fly&Drive. The journalist's articles were regularly published in Evening Moscow, Moskovsky Komsomolets and Moskovskaya Pravda.
Since October 2020, the creative biography of Otar Kushanashvili has been enriched with new pages. Until March 2016, he hosted the morning radio show “100% of the Morning” on Sport FM. In the same year, the journalist tried to fill the vacancy vacated after the departure of Matvey Ganapolsky at the Ukrainian “Radio Vesti”, but he was refused.
Published by Peopletalk.ru Friday, April 3, 2015
Otar Kushanashvili and Lera Kudryavtseva
Otar Kushanashvili always takes part in programs dedicated to significant events in the field of show business. In 2020, he attended several broadcasts where the untimely death of the famous and beloved Zhanna Friske was covered. After the death of Yulia Nachalova, a television journalist told the public about the singer’s last desire to “be remembered as cheerful.”
Kushanashvili also tried his hand at acting. The journalist appeared in the comedy project “33 square meters”, in the 3rd season of the detective series “Kamenskaya-3” and the action drama “Club”. He also starred in the films “Kaleidoscope”, “Life is like a movie, or a High Security Show” and “Vladislav Galkin. Get out of your role."
In October 2020, Otar Kushanashvili became the TV presenter of the “Natural Selection” program. The talk show is dedicated to issues of product quality. Both average citizens who have suffered from low-quality goods and owners and directors of manufacturing companies who are ready to defend the name of their own product come to the program’s studio. Disputes are resolved by experts - production technologists, doctors, nutritionists and even lawyers.
Zinaida Rudenko became Otar Kushanashvili’s co-host. The man called his partner a godsend for the program, which instantly adapts to each topic and is able to bring the program to the desired level of tension.
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Otar Kushanashvili and Zinaida Rudenko
At the same time, Kushanashvili himself admitted that it was his first time performing in a show of this format. Although this is not the first time for a journalist to play the role of “defender of the oppressed,” Otar Shalvovich is used to doing this in a more ironic and creative way.
The TV presenter called the main goal of the program an educational function: to teach what and how to buy, how to live a high-quality and safe life, what to look for when choosing new brands, and what things and products are better to avoid altogether.
In 2020, the TV presenter released a new book called “Not Alone.” The publishing house Argumenty Nedeli took over the printing and distribution of the book. Previously, “I and the Path in... How to Defeat Good”, “I. The book is revenge" and "The Epoch and Me: Chronicles of a Hooligan."
In April 2020, the TV presenter became a guest of the author’s program “My Hero” by writer Tatyana Ustinova, which airs on the TVC channel. In this talk show, Otar Kushanashvili talked with the writer about his biography, talked about conflicts with the people who brought Kushanashvili into journalism, and about the indignation of the journalist’s appearance on the part of Tbilisi residents, which arose in the 90s.
Since 2020, on the same channel, Otar has been producing the culinary show “Save me, I can’t cook!” Many celebrities have already visited the TV presenter’s studio, including Marina Yakovleva, Ekaterina Skulkina, Georgy Martirosyan and others.
Otar Kushanashvili met with his young colleague Yuri Dudem. The TV journalist believes that the blogger demonstrates exactly the style of communication that was characteristic of journalism in the late 90s. According to the columnist, Yuri resorts to such vocabulary openly, while Otar and his colleagues used it only on the sidelines.
Kushanashvili insulted Pugacheva
Only after this terrible tragedy, in which the team captain Ivan Tkachenko also died, did an amazing fact emerge: Vanya secretly donated the lion's share of his salary to charity. Literally 15 minutes before his death, Tkachenko made the last gift in his life: he transferred 500 thousand rubles to the account of 16-year-old Diana Ibragimova, a cancer patient. In total, he spent 9,996,300 rubles to help children... Our star columnist and famous TV presenter Otar Kushanashvili remembers this amazing man today. Vanya Tkachenko has not been with us for six years, I read an interview with his dad, Leonid Vladimirovich, crushed by the loss of a man who to this day wears the jacket of his son glowing in the photo, and cried.
To be fair, it should be noted that Kushanashvili does not have a negative attitude towards all stars and famous personalities. In particular, he speaks of Yuri Aizenshpis as a great man, and of Ksenia Sobchak as the smartest girl he knows, who never offends the weak. Otar greatly appreciates the singing talent and personal qualities of Valery Meladze, Joseph Kobzon, Leonid Agutin.
The creative biography of Otar Kushanashvili began in the newspaper “New Look”, which was founded by Evgeny Dodolev. Otar Kushanashvili did not disappoint the hopes placed by Demidov. But not everyone had such self-control as Leontyev. The now deceased singer and fashion model Natalia Medvedeva, offended by Kushanashvili’s antics, threw a microphone at him. Otar Kushanashvili did not ignore politicians either. As part of the project, Kushanashvili conducted more than 300 interviews with celebrities.
Scandals
Otar Kushanashvili made a name for himself through numerous scandals and provocative speeches. Thus, back in the early 2000s, a television journalist in Andrei Malakhov’s program dedicated to the Eurovision theme switched to obscene language in the conversation.
Fans of the brawler remember an incident at a concert in Vilnius when Otar, not calculating the strength of the audience, jumped into the crowd, which did not catch him. As a result of the fall, the reporter lost consciousness.
And in 2004, Kushanashvili was completely arrested in Portugal due to his willful appearance on the football field during a match between the Russian and Portuguese national teams. Then the fan's prank cost the team access to the quarterfinals of the European Championship. Otar got off with two years probation and a fine of €2.5 thousand.
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Otar Kushanashvili and Andrei Grigoriev-Appolonov
2 years later, the notorious Georgian made a sensational statement in Dmitry Gordon’s program that he was beaten by unknown persons on the order of the Russian pop prima donna. According to the TV journalist, before this he had dropped a caustic phrase that over the past 48 years (this was the singer’s age at that time) the performer had not sung a single successful song.
These words offended the artist, after which she filed a lawsuit against the journalist. In the same interview, Otar said that he was once beaten by a drunken Alexander Abdulov in front of Kristina Orbakaite.
Later, viewers could watch the scandalous favorite on the Ukrainian TV show “Big Brother,” where Otar happily stripped completely naked in one of the episodes and showed off thick hair all over his body. Kushanashvili often speaks out in defense of his friends from show business. In particular, he spoke with regret about Andrei Grigoriev-Appolonov’s alcoholism, which began with the star after a painful divorce.
Otar Kushanashvili now
In 2020, Otar Kushanashvili became a guest of the Internet show “Body Game,” which he announced from his Instagram page. Now he continues to work on the main projects “Save me, I can’t cook!” and “Natural Selection”, as well as periodically appearing in other programs. In March 2020, Kushanashvili visited Boris Korchevnikov’s studio “The Fate of a Man”.
What else was discussed in the program “The Fate of Man”
Otar Kushanashvili spoke in the program about his role. It turned out that the man is not at all as scandalous and cynical as he is believed to be. It all started with the program “Sharks of the Feather,” where the TV presenter was often rude to the public.
For the image of a hooligan, brawler and king of outrageousness, according to Otar, they paid well. A similar “role” went to a man at the age of 26, when he had just moved to Moscow. He could not refuse this offer then.
And later it turned out that taking off such a “mask” is not so easy. Therefore, many viewers consider Otar Kushanashvili to be boorish in real life. The man even had to be beaten for such a role.
But after “Shark of the Pen,” his career took off, and now he is a famous writer, journalist and TV presenter.
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