TV shows | Serial entertainers

Ramayan Mahabharat A still from Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan (1987-88) was so popular that India would come to a virtual standstill every Sunday morning at 9. Millions gathered before their own or their neighbour’s TV sets. A sacred ritual for many—they bathed and did puja in front of their new colour TVs before Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhlia incarnated (for many, literally as Lord Rama and Sita). For all its loud, melodramatic acting and tacky production values, it amassed a cult following, teasing India’s hitherto latent religiosity out into the open. B.R. Chopra’s Mahabharat (1988-90) was, by comparison, better served by its writer, Rahi Masoom Raza. But the two serials became a kind of contemporary folklore that, many sociologists believe, were a catalyst for the rise of Hindutva.Buniyaad A still from Buniyaad Ramesh Sippy, the director of India’s greatest box-office hit Sholay; Manohar Shyam Joshi, the writer of Hum Log (1984), India’s first telenovela; and I as producer got together to make Buniyaad (1986-87)—the saga of a Punjabi family’s rise and fall in the backdrop of Partition and an underlay of idealism in the lives of the main protagonists. A lot of attention to detail came courtesy Prof. Pushpesh Pant, a cultural anthropologist, and eminent Hindi novelist Krishna Sobti. With realistic sets designed by veteran art director Sudhendhu Roy and photographed by the acclaimed cinematographer K.K. Mahajan, Buniyaad still remains one of the best fiction shows on Indian TV. Carefully nuanced, the Joshi-Sippy duo was helped by one of the best ensembles of fine actors: Alok Nath, Anita Kanwar, Kanwaljit Singh, Rajesh Puri, Mazhar Khan, Dilip Tahil, Soni Razdan, Kiran Juneja, Asha Sachdev, Sudhir Pandey, Vijayendra Ghatge, Neena Gupta and Pallavi Joshi.Chitrahaar RangoliAs unique as the Indian tradition of songs in films, Chitrahaar (1982-) and Rangoli (1988-) were not inspired by any foreign format but evolved in the musty corridors of Doordarshan. Come Wednesday evenings and early Sunday mornings, people across India would line up before the nearest TV set to watch these medleys of favourite film songs. Later, as these shows were thrown open for bidding, I and some other producers would pay upwards of Rs 1 crore per week to DD for their telecastproduction rights. We reimagined it as a simple, thematically woven garland of songs with star anchors, and logged the highest ratings for years..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Mirza GhalibWhen Gulzar, Jagjit Singh and Naseeruddin Shah combine to recreate the life of one of India’s greatest poets, you are sure to get a masterpiece, low budget notwithstanding. Telecast on Doordarshan in 1988, Mirza Ghalib is the rare serial on a literary figure, with exquisite music, acting and ambience. Gulzar brings a detached empathy to Ghalib’s character—you catch glimpses of humour, sarcasm, romance and tragedy. The dialogues faithfully echoing the unique lingo of old Delhi’s galiyaan (lanes and alleys) is an audio-visual treat. Jagjit Singh composes and sings some of Ghalib’s best poems as an added bonus. Besides Naseer’s fantastic performance, Parikshit Sahni, Tanvi Azmi, Neena Gupta, Shafi Inamdar and Sudhir Dalvi put in top-class cameos as well.Bharat Ek Khoj This magnum opus by Shyam Benegal, based on Nehru’s The Discovery of India, was for a whole generation their first lesson in Indian history, from the Indus Valley to Independence. Ace writers (Shyam himself, Shama Zaidi, Sunil Shanbag, Satyadev Dubey and Vasant Dev); sterling actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Irrfan Khan; V.K. Murthy’s camera lingering studiously on pared-down sets and believable costumery, in sync with Vanraj Bhatia’s thoughtful music, this 53-episode series (aired from Nov. 1988 to Nov. 1989) broke the Raja Ravi Varma-style calendar art imagery for historical characters. And the narrative style—Roshan Seth’s Nehru with a counterview by Om Puri—was fascinating.Kaun Banega Crorepati Amitabh Bachchan as the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati Adapted from Celador’s chartbuster Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, industry gossip says the Hong Kong-based Star TV’s programming boss Steve Askew selected the format while its India programming head Sameer Nair zeroed in on Amitabh Bachchan as anchor...a masterstroke. Bachchan, then going through a lean patch, took a big risk going on TV, which was still looked down upon by film stars. But he worked hard, and watched various versions of the show. The production was entrusted to Siddharth Basu, India’s best quizmaster. From the very first episode aired in 2000, KBC was a national rage.C.I.D.TV in India has a long tradition of detective shows: think Karamchand, Byomkesh Bakshi, Reporter, Tehkikat, Raja aur Rancho. But it took C.I.D., producer-director B.P. Singh’s Indian cop version of Sherlock Holmes, to break open the doors of mega success—captivating viewers over two decades (1998-2018). Arguably the longest running fiction show in India, each episode featured a new case solved by a team of police officers led by ACP Pradyuman. The talented Shivaji Satam went on to become synonymous with the character.Antakshari Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Indian IdolTalent shows, especially those featuring amateur singers, are a common motif among most general entertainment channels. Zee TV in 1993 was the first to create a homegrown format based on a popular game played in Indian households—Antakshari. The show was initially directed by Gajendra Singh and anchored by actors Annu Kapoor and Renuka Shahane and later by artistes like Sonu Nigam and Pallavi Joshi. The gameplay was simple, and it immediately became a hit with the viewers. Over the years, talent shows like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (1995-) or its kids’ version L’il Champs (2006-), Indian Idol (2004-) and India’s Got Talent (2009-) have become a platform for talented singers from small towns and villages, and have given the world stars like Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal.Published By: Aditya Mohan WigPublished On: Dec 26, 2022--- ENDS ---

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TV shows | Serial entertainers

To shortlist the best from across some 60 years, not to speak of the smorgasbord of languages and genres served to us daily by 500+ channels, is a tough ask. But let's go by a truism: nothing has influenced Indian society as much as television. Here, then, are perhaps the most influential...

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