Spin on Air

Tripurari Sharan,director general,Doordarshan,however,chooses to keep mum about the increased revenue. “I would say that there have been monetary gains,” he admits.

Doordarshan has now introduced MTV’s Coke Studio and the new edition of Ramayan,which is also being telecast on Zee TV. Nearly five DD serials are doing pretty well. Telecasting of the London Olympics also helped them grab eyeballs. “We are now looking at getting a lot more variety in programming,” says Sharan.

Amrit Sagar,director of Ramayan,believes that Doordarshan is finally making the effort to get noticed. He says,“DD officials are beginning to realise the importance of getting rid of their stringent policies. They are open to simulcasting,which is helping them get shows from other channels and thereby getting a better bouquet of programmes.” Sagar sees paying for the morning slot,that is 11am to 1pm,as a drawback for the channel,since it is government-run. “If you have to telecast something on the channel,you have to pay for it. That’s why simulcasting helps,because the other channel sorts out these issues for you,” he says.

India’s national channel,DD,had a modest beginning with the experimental telecast starting in New Delhi on September 15,1959. It was extended to Bombay and Amritsar in 1972. But it was in the ’80s that DD flourished. Following the live telecast of Asian Games in 1982 and shows such as Hum Log,Buniyaad,Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi and Nukkad,its audience base increased. “With DD being the only channel then with strong content,it became a powerful medium of entertainment,” says Sagar.

“However,the officials at Doordarshan took its popularity for granted,” says one of the directors of a show on Doordarshan during the ’80s,who does not wish to be named. “When the satellite boom happened,they were hit so hard that they found it difficult to bounce back. The stringent policies of sticking to only certain kind of shows and not being flexible about time slots did not help them either,” he adds.

In the last couple of years,however,the channel seems to have undergone a change. “There was a time when after 25 to 30 episodes on air,the channel would stop paying attention to the show. That seems to have changed now,” says Abbas Gazdhar,director of Ek Kiran Roshni Ki,which is currently on air. Today,the channel gives creative inputs to its shows,such as Kul Ki Jyoti Kanya and Hum Phir Milenge,which are doing well in terms of TRP.

The channel has also realised its reach now and has planned to work on it. Yet,Sharan maintains that they are not competing with the other channels. “We do not have daily soaps because we understand the attention span of our audience,” he says. According to Sharan,the channel’s priority remains shows related to news and current affairs. “We are not looking at building a reputation on sensationalism,” he says. The channel,in a bid to consolidate its position,is looking at getting back some of its previous popular shows. “It is in its nascent stage,but we are definitely looking at various sources,” he adds.