Despite Salman Khan's 10 Ka Dum, the celebrity-studded Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao and a host of new shows in different genres, it is the good old detective series CID that has emerged as the top-rated show on Sony last week. Since its launch in 1998, CID has consistently been amongst the top five shows of the channel. In an era where shows are struggling to survive, let alone succeed, CID's achievement is commendable.
The cops of CID, ACP Pradyuman, Daya, Abhijeet and Frederick have become household names. Shivaji Satam, who plays ACP Pradyuman has people saluting him on the roads. Says Danish Khan, AVP, Sony, "The characters are so popular that they have become a brand by themselves."
A team of six directors and seven writers is behind the cop saga. Initially, it was written by Sridhar Raghavan, who opted out of the show to script films. He was part of the show for six years, then his brother Shriram Raghavan took over to pen the crime stories. This was before he directed films like Ek Haseena Thi and scripted Taxi No 9211. It was also the last TV show of Ashutosh Gowariker, who had played the role of Abhijeet before he quit to direct Lagaan. He played Abhijeet for one year before Aditya Shrivastav stepped into his shoes.
Since then the team has remained the same. Over the years there have been a couple of additions in the form of lady cops but they haven't really sustained. The latest entrant is Vaishnavi. However, it the chemistry between Satam, Shetty and Shrivastav and the investigation procedures that have kept viewers glued.
On air for 12 years, the series has collected many awards on the way and created records. In 2004, director B.P. Singh entered the Guinness Book Of World Records for canning an entire episode in a single shot of 111 minutes (one hour fifty-one minutes) without a single cut. The Limca Book of Awards also awarded his production house Fireworks for this feat. What's more, the episode had no cuts and commercial breaks.
Recalls Singh, "Since there was no precedence of such an episode, it was challenging to write a script without cuts. It had to have all the ingredients of suspense, flashback and flashforward. There was no scope for the camera to cut and dissolve and nothing that could be hidden from it." Such was the enthusiasm for the record-breaking episode that Raj Zutshi and Kay Kay Menon agreed to be a part of it without even hearing the story.
Titled The Inheritance, this longest-ever episode was about a hotelier who comes down from South Africa to wind up his business and sort out his inheritance. All his relatives gather at the hotel in the hope of getting a share of his property. A murder takes place amidst them and the owner summons the CID. Just when the CID team thinks it has tracked the killer, two more murders are committed, this time in the presence of the CID, thus intensifying the suspense.
In 2006, the channel tried to cash in on brand CID by flagging off its spin-off CID Special Bureau, a daily investigative thriller. It ran only for 168 episodes, wasn't as popular as CID and the series was pulled off. Says Khan, "One can't say why it didn't work, but our research shows that CID is a powerful brand and people like to see it because it is cerebral and akin to solving a crossword puzzle." The USP of the show lies in its forensic detailing, something which Singh loves. "It informs viewers of the importance of forensic science and how it helps in investigation," says Singh who now begins all his episodes with a forensic scene. "It's a learning experience, but I make it entertaining with drama in the lab," he informs.
A new montage shot on High-Definition is the highlight of the show that will play for 50 minutes and have a one-and-half-hour episode once a month. Having shot across the country in Jodhpur and Kerala, the team will now go to Malaysia. Recently, the channel extended its franchise by announcing the CID Gallantry Awards, an initiative to applaud the common men who have shown exemplary courage in adverse situations. A jury of four members–actor, social activist-author Gerson Da Cunha, art-and-culture writer Shanta Gokhale, IBN 7 journalist Ashutosh and Kavita Karkare, wife of ex-ATS chief the late Hemant Karkare, will sieve through the entries and choose candidates to be feliciated. That's not all. Singh is planning to introduce CID as a comic strip. An animation film for kids is also in the pipeline.
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Health and Fitness
Anupamaa
