Myopia, Thy Name Is...

WHEN a tentative official blueprint was drawn up late last year by the human resource development ministry for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Independence, Doordarshan was apportioned a key role in the momentous exercise. At the inaugural meeting of the high-level implementation committee in November, one senior bureaucrat had recommended the launch of a special Education Channel, while another had gone to the extent of thinking up a name for the proposed service—the Freedom Channel. That grandiose suggestion, stemming no doubt from a quixotic belief in DD's ability to deliver the goods, has remained on paper. Like so much else that Mandi House has taken upon itself as part of the nation's 50th anniversary celebrations.

In sheer scale, DD's 'Freedom 50' bash has a pretty impressive ring about it. It is the execution that has, as always, fallen well short of minimum professional standards. The national broadcaster, currently in the throes of profound change in the wake of the notification of the Prasar Bharati Act, has commissioned more than 1,000 programmes of varying lengths for telecast during the commemorative year. While over 800 of these shows are for the regional kendras, 221 are meant for the national hook-up. But nearly two months after August 15, 1997, the celebrations, which are expected to cost Mandi House more than Rs 40 crore to mount, are yet to achieve any degree of visibility.

Barring two ongoing sponsored serials—Raj Babbar's rather insipid Maen Dilli Hoon and Manju Singh's infinitely more watch-able ode to India's forgotten freedom fighters, Swaraj, directed by Bollywood whizkid Pankaj Parashar—and a handful of patriotic songs and vapid feelgood fillers that extol the virtues of India's 'thriving' democracy, DD has little to show for its efforts so far. Mandi House still awaits the delivery of its much-hyped line-up of special programmes commissioned for the 50th anniversary of free India. "The few programmes that are currently on air are of a rather poor quality," feels Yati Jindal, producer of The Common Man, a sponsored serial that has been rejected by DD on the specious plea that it is "anti-national" in spirit. Its crime? It dares to present an objective view of independent India, warts and all, through the eyes of a quintessential common man, a superannuated school teacher played by Shreeram Lagoo.

Not surprisingly, DD's sins of omission have of late been more in the news than the programmes it has commissioned, although both threaten to land the national broadcaster in a fair spot of bother. From critics, software producers, parliamentarians and legal quarters alike. Besides, The Common Man, which was approved by DD's bosses early this year only to be rejected after as many as 18 25-minute episodes were completed, is not the only programme left out in the cold. Hamara Tiranga, a 30-minute programme that traces the genesis of the national flag, was flagged down by DD because it questions the rule that prohibits Indian citizens from hoisting the tricolour on occasions other than Independence Day and Republic Day. While Hamara Tiranga has found its way to Zee TV, the producer of The Common Man, directed by Bhimsain, is still hoping for good sense to prevail. "We've already sunk Rs 80 lakh into the project and are, therefore, keen that the serial is aired on DD. My audience is not the urban elite, but the lower middle-class, semi-rural masses."

It is not just individual producers who have suffered at the hands of DD's bosses. The National Film Development Corporation, a wing of the Union information and broadcasting ministry, had earlier this year offered to put together a package of films that revolve around various aspects of the freedom struggle. Mandi House turned down the proposal, citing paucity of funds as the reason. Says one Mumbai-based producer: "When much more relevant proposals have been summarily turned down, one wonders what a serial like Maen Dilli Hoon, which deals with 5,000 years of Delhi's history, is doing on DD. Are we celebrating 5,000 years of Delhi or 50 years of India?"

 Even as the brickbats have started flying, the office of Anees-ul Haq, DD's deputy director-general in charge of programmes commemorating the 50th anniversary of Independence, is confident that once the better-commissioned programmes—the 13-episode serials directed by Shyam Benegal, Girish Karnad, Saeed Mirza and Buddhadeb Dasgupta and a 21-episode inter-collegiate quiz show, The India Quiz: Freedom Fifty, hosted by Siddhartha Basu for Malayala Manorama's TVdivision—go on air, the criticism will automatically die down. "The commissioned shows will begin in November," says a DD official. The India Quiz will be shot in two instalments—in November and January—and is expected to begin in time to culminate on August 15, 1998.

But what of the shows that have been rejected without any clear reason being cited? Pat comes the reply from the unflappable DD official: "We have unambiguous guidelines to follow. Moreover, it is impossible to accommodate every proposal that is sent to us." Fair enough. But that doesn't explain the rejection of a series after it is approved. While rejecting The Common Man, DD director-general K. Subramanya Sarma refused to grant Yati Jindal an appointment. "We are unable to process the proposal in view of the controversy you have generated on the subject. Moreover, we are no more in need of sponsored programmes," the DG scribbled on a fax message that he received from Jindal. Coming from the head of a network that has been scrounging around for quality software while the foreign satellite channels, notably Star Plus and BBC, have notched up shows like Ramesh Sippy's Gaatha and Dynasty, the Beeb's engaging take on the Nehru-Gandhi saga, the stand is mystifying, if not totally unexpected.

 It hasn't, of course, gone unnoticed. The parliamentary standing committee of the I&B ministry has already voiced its concern over the poor quality of the commemorative shows on DD. It has asked Mandi House to produce all records pertaining to the commissioning of shows for the 50th anniversary celebrations. Understandably, there is panic in the corridors of DD.

Worse, DD has run into trouble on the legal front as well. The Rajasthan high court has, in response to a petition filed by independent television and film producer Gajanand Mishra, found the Jaipur kendra prima facie guilty of favouritism and irregularities in commissioning shows relating to the 50th anniversary of India's Independence. The court has pulled up Mandi House for not furnishing relevant papers and for ignoring queries from the court. The court has directed Sarma to constitute a four-member committee, comprising representatives of DD, the I&B ministry, the finance ministry and the software production fraternity, to look into the controversy generated by the Jaipur kendra.

Each of DD's 15 news-producing kendras has been allocated Rs 1 crore for the commissioning of special shows. While ordinarily, no kendra has the power to sanction a budget of more than Rs 1 lakh for a single episode of any programme, for the anniversary bash the minimum amount has been raised to Rs 2 crore. So, with a budget of Rs 1 crore, no kendra needs to engage more than eight to 10 producers to generate 50-odd episodes. But the Jaipur kendra has commissioned programmes by as many as 22 producers, raising serious doubts about the quality that's likely to be served up. That's precisely the question Mishra has raised: why haven't the pro-grammes gone to producers with proven track records?

With the Prasar Bharati Board in the process of being constituted, DD is in a state of flux. So, nobody has any answers. Nor the inclination to give the 50th anniversary programmes the thrust they deserve.