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| Back in action | ||
| A. L. Chougule Could you go down memory lane and reflect on some of your achievements? Though we started 25 years ago, it seems as if we have started yesterday. How time flies! The fact that we were the first to get into television production when Doordarshan opened its sponsored programme scheme in the early '80s and are still around after 25 years is a very gratifying feeling. In 25 years, Cinevistaas has done over 4,000 hours of programming and owns copyright of over 2000 hours of software. We have done some of the best programming; have always stuck to quality and delivered popular shows. We also introduced on television some of the best talent in acting and direction. Our first serial Katha Sagar which was based on the works of internationally renowned authors like Chekhov, Maupassant, Tolstoy and O'Henry was one of the most highly appreciated shows that was directed by the likes of Shyam Benegal, Kundan Shah, Anil Ganguly and Satyan Bose. In Zindagi which was based on Amrita Pritam's short story we introduced Sharmila Tagore on television. In short, we have many firsts to our credit. Which have been Cinevistaas's milestone shows? Katha Sagar is an all-time classic. Zindagi had its high moments. But the show that's very close to my heart is Gul Gulshan Gulfam, which was set in Kashmir and was shot there before terrorism hit the valley. We were half-way through the show when terrorism started and we had to run away from Kashmir. Luckily we had shot the entire outdoor portion and we recreated the set in Film City for indoor scenes. Our serial Saahil was shot in Mussourie which had Kiran Kumar and Raza Murad acting on television for the first time. Tell us something about your most successful show Junoon on DD Metro. Yes, Junoon was our biggest success. We had to move with the times. Junoon came on DD Metro which was launched to tackle the competition from satellite channels. The profile of DD Metro was commercial and we had to go with the channel's brand image by making a commercially acceptable and popular show. We had to incorporate all the commercial elements like crime, enmity, divorce, heartbreaks and business rivalry while narrating an engaging story. Junoon also happens to be the first show to be dubbed in Tamil and was simultaneously telecast on DD's Tamil channel. Your association with DD continued for a long time despite the advent of satellite channels in a big way. Why? It made good business sense to make shows for DD because we could retain the copyrights. Besides, our shows worked very well on DD and the association was mutually beneficial to both. But we didn't stay away from satellite channels. We started with repeats of our DD shows and then went into original programming for satellite channels like Star Plus, Zee and Sahara. What prompted you to pull out of DD and make programmes for private players? |
Every show can't be a hit. The law of averages applies to everyone. Besides Sanjeevani, our afternoon daily Sanskriti for Star Plus was also well received. Even Shhh…Koi Hai did quite well. There were rumours that Cinevistaas was shutting shop and selling its studio.
That was a bad and irresponsible piece of reporting by a certain journalist. We never shut shop. In fact, we kept working and our studio was not up for sale. But didn't Cinevistaas go through a rough phase?
Yes, we did go through a bad patch. But life can't always be rosy. Good and bad times are part of life and business. Some times a wrong business decision goes against you. But we survived and we are back again to making television shows that is our core strength. Was getting into film production a wrong decision?
In a way yes. We ignored television and went into making films. We made three films and got hit the wrong way. Now for some time we will concentrate only on making television shows and if we get into film production in future we will make small-budget films which are relatively safe bets. Sequels generally don't do well. Do you think Dill Mill Gayye will get the kind of eyeballs that Sanjeevani got?
There is no reason why it should not if the content is good. The show is back on public demand and hence it should get good viewership. What are the other new shows you are planning?
We are working on five new shows. One of them is for ZeeNext and it is already under production. We will talk about our other new shows at an appropriate time.
You are not looking at making film for some time. Will Cinevistaas go for some other diversification?
We have a huge land in our studio and we are looking at diversifying into an IT Park.
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