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Journalism of Courage
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) building’s picturesque corridors and archways have been out of bounds for Bollywood films and other serial productions. But the civic administration, which is controlled by the Shiv Sena, made a special exception for Marathi television serial ‘Raja Shivachhatrapati’ which was launched on Monday. Giant screens were set up on the façade of the 125-year-old heritage building, along with state-of-the-art speakers and sound systems, for a mega publicity blitzkrieg the serial-makers have undertaken. The reason: denying permission to the serial’s screening based on the life and times of the Maratha ruler may have insulted people’s sentiments.
With elections round the corner, the Shiv Sena-BJP could not have run risk of refusing the serial producers the permission to launch the serial from BMC’s premises.
The serial, on the life and times of Maratha warrior king Shivaji, is being showcased on the newly launched channel, Star Pravah.
“They have taken the permission and even paid fees for setting the screens. I was told that screens have been set up on the BMC building earlier too,” said Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak. “With the publicity of the serial, there is some publicity for our heritage building too,” he reasoned.
Earlier, screens have been set up for Mumbai Marathon and the civic election results. But, this is the first time a private channel is using the civic headquarters for publicity of a TV serial.
Civic officials said that Star was charged Rs 24,500 for screening one hour of the first day’s episode. “Denying permission for this serial would have been a great insult and resulted in lot of criticism,” said a civic official.
The channel authorities also wanted to screen the first episode in the UNESCO-awarded heritage corporation hall — where all the 227 corporators sit and take decisions about the development of the city. But, the schedule for the general body meeting could not have allowed this. “Many civic employees are staying back to see the screening,” Phatak said.
Nitin Desai, art director and producer of the serial, said, “We had planned a special campaign for the serial so that each and every person in the state and country who is an admirer of Shivaji Maharaj gets to see the serial,” he said.
The shoot of the serial was launched in June in presence of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray. “Balasaheb saw the first episode and even Uddhav and Raj shared their knowledge about Shivaji Maharaj. Deshmukh and Home minister R R Patil also helped in getting the required permissions to copy the traditional armoury for the serial,” he told the Indian Express.
