'We are one happy family' - ACP Pradhyuman aka Shivaji Satam

Thursday night, August 21st saw the celebration of 11 years of CID, one of Sony's flagship weekend shows. Unfortunately though, except for the cast, unit and the channel heads there was hardly any media present to raise a toast to ACP Pradyuman and his team members.

A short felicitation ceremony followed, where the channel heads honored the producers, the soft spoken B P Singh and the man of very few words Pradeep Upoor, directors, writers – brothers Shriram and Shridhar Raghvan and Rajat Arora and the cast headed by Shivaji Satam.

With the formal part over, the celebration continued as beer flowed freely and the spirits soared high. We caught up with Shivaji Satam who couldn't partake of any of the non-vegetarian fare as he was observing the auspicious period of 'Shravan'.

Excerpts from a chat:

Eleven years of CID…looks like a long lasting marriage?
(Laughs) Absolutely. What more does an actor want? I am proud to have been part of a long standing show. We have set some benchmarks, a nice World Record too of shooting a 111 minute long episode in one take, and it's a rock solid show on Sony for the past so many years. It feels great.

But of late, haven't some of the crime stories dealt with lost its sheen? Most episodes are built up a lot and then all you get is an anti-climax…
Yes, I do agree but then it's not always the case. Isn't life too like that? Sometimes there is so much excitement around and then suddenly there is an empty feeling. Besides, sustaining a weekly one hour crime fiction show isn't a joke. It does take a toll on creativity but you go on, as one happy family.

Shooting together for all these years must have been fun…
Yes, it's really like a family of brothers…Sabse bada bhai followed by thoda chhota aur phir usse thoda chhota and then the youngest. There are no ego hassles, no differences, no clashes. We work towards one goal. We play cricket together, we gossip, we laugh, we have fun. There’s never a dull moment on the show.

Don't you get tired of it all?
Do we get tired of our family? Yes, there are times when there is no bank of episodes and we are shooting under pressure and we feel like telling the producers to request the channel to give us a break but then again, so many livelihoods are dependent on this show, so why mend it when it ain't broken!

Why aren't you doing other TV shows?
Simply because when you are leading a successful show, where is the need to do something else? I believe TV is a medium which doesn't allow for over exposure. Viewers too feel monotonous when they see the same set of actors. Besides, I have my Marathi films to keep me creatively satiated.

Finally, what are the advantages of being ACP Pradyuman?
That you get the best close-ups and the best lines!!

Reporter and Author: Kshama Rao