Can drama return to television?

With crass crowding the small screen, there’s a case to bring back televised plays

June 23, 2018 04:14 pm | Updated 04:15 pm IST

A still from Adukkalayil Ninnu Arangathekku.

A still from Adukkalayil Ninnu Arangathekku.

Recently, an iconic Malayalam play was produced for television by Thrissur Doordarshan Kendra and became a major hit. This compels one to revisit the question — can drama be revived on television for commercial success?

The play was social reformer V.T. Bhattathiripad’s legendary Adukkalayil Ninnu Arangathekku (From the Kitchen to the Stage), produced on a shoestring budget by V.K. Kishore, earning not only much acclaim but also revenues, signalling that drama on TV can be resuscitated. The adaptation of this 1930 play, which challenged Brahmin orthodoxy and sought the emancipation of Namboothiri women, opens up new possibilities that television must explore.

With the small screen full of crass commercial serials, viewers seem to be looking for alternative programming, and televised plays can provide an excellent substitute. Interestingly, in the 1970s and early 80s, when DD was the only channel, metropolitan kendras had weekly slots for plays, which captured 95% of audience attention. Socially relevant plays were integral to those early days of television.

Onscreen drama

For Doordarshan, drama was top rated in its programming schedule, as it was for other networks worldwide. Called Dorama in Japan, Hangul in Korea and Telenovelas in Latin America, TV drama was both common and popular. In Communist countries, TV plays were as popular, although used more for propaganda. In Britain, BBC proclaimed its mission to act as the national theatre of the airwaves. There were trendy dramas covering harsh issues of life and society. Populist, entertainment-based Wednesday plays presented contemporary drama with social content. A new genre of artistic TV plays emerged drawing family audiences. There was eclectic and diverse fare, until reality TV, the dirge of television, arrived.

A tough task

Producing theatre for TV wasn’t easy. Recordings were confined to the studio floor and it was a cumbersome process involving erecting and dismantling sets for each scene, building ‘properties’, placing cameras for movement, lighting up and capturing sound with appropriately placed microphones. Virtual sets or special effects and graphics or convergence and instant connectivity from multiple locations were not even dreamt of. It was all hard physical labour. Production involved the Herculean efforts of a large team.

Besides these, there were also specially commissioned, longer plays, for which funds were earmarked. These were often reputed theatrical works by celebrated groups. One such play produced by Chennai DD used a live elephant and a moving bus in the studio. Popular writers such as Sujatha wrote the best TV plays in Tamil, with producers like Gopalie Narayanaswami, Senapathi or Thanjaivanan Govindarajan creating memorable in-studio works.

R.S. Manohar’s National Theatre, Poornam Theatre, Crazy Creations and Seva Stage were other groups, with plays like Dronacharya , Avan Parthuppan , Kadavul Virndhu Vannaan , Oru Veedu Oru Ulagam and Oru Kai Osai .

For Thiruvananthapuram DD, although set up as late as 1985, Kerala’s best theatre groups, KPAC (Kerala People’s Arts Club) and Kalidasa Kala Kendra, contributed, their efforts produced by C.K. Thomas and celebrated by critical Malayali audiences.

Best on show

For Bombay Kendra, producers like Sai Paranjpe, Meena Vaishnavi and Vishvas Mehendle produced outstanding Marathi plays: Nat Samrat by Bal Kolhatkar, Ghatla Shingavar and Katyar Kalijat Ghusali by Manohar Khatdhare. Meena Vaishnavi is credited with the first ever serial drama on DD, Shwetambara , adapted from Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

In Delhi, Ved Sinha, Sathish Garg, G.S. Raina and Sharad Dutt produced landmark plays such as Mohan Rakesh’s Aashadh Ka Ek Din , Habib Tanvir’s Agra Bazaar , Bhoole Bisre Chitra based on Bhagavathi Charan Sharma’s novel, Shehenshah by J.N. Kaushal, Football by Rudranath Sanyal, Cycle Wala by Vijay Tendulkar and Saari Raat by Badal Sircar.

A still from Buniyaad.

A still from Buniyaad.

In Kolkata, DD producers Bibhas Chakravarthy and Subrato Mukherji brought out the nuances and power of Bengali theatre. Tagore’s Dak Ghar by Bohurupee, directed by the legendary Shombhu Mitra (who also acted in it), Nana Ranger Din and Teen Poishar Pala directed by Ajithesh Bandopadhyaya, Rajaraktha of the Theatre Workshop, Brishti by Swapna Sandhani directed by Shyamal Sen, Marich Sanbad by Chetna and Charbak directed by Nilkantha Sengupta need special mention.

The year 1982 is a landmark in the annals of Doordarshan. From August 15, all four metropolitan kendras were linked through a dedicated microwave link. From 8 p.m., common networked programmes, originating from Delhi, were telecast countrywide. Later, with the historic 1982 Asiad, the country was networked through satellite, with new, low-power transmitters installed. Soon, the transmitters multiplied, helping distribute terrestrially the programming received through satellite signals.

National decline

As the national network took over, regional stations lost their prime time slots. This was a huge setback to regional centres, which had been the mainstay for high quality theatre. Another factor that led to the decline of drama on TV was the introduction of portable video cameras and recorders. These were now used in outdoor locations and were better for post-production, including dubbing, mixing and re-recording background scores. As interest in drama on primetime television dropped, it led to an exodus of the huge talent pool of specialised theatre artistes available on call for DD. The golden period of TV drama, from the 60s to the 80s, came to an end.

Doordarshan’s focus shifted to edutainment. The first and longest 156-episode serial family drama commissioned and produced by Doordarshan was Manohar Shyam Joshi’s Hum Log , directed by Kumar Vasudev. Based on a Mexican soap opera Ven Conmigo (Come with Me), Hum Log tackled social issues like family planning, communal harmony, women’s empowerment, national integration, dowry, alcoholism and drug abuse. Each episode was a self-contained drama, adeptly presented by Ashok Kumar in Hindi and Gemini Ganesan in Tamil.

Other serials of outstanding quality were also commissioned, such as Shyam Benegal’s Bharat Ek Khoj , based on Jawaharlal Nehru’s The Discovery of India and Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas adapted by Govind Nihalani. Buniyaad dealt with partition and its aftermath. These had high production values and attracted mass viewership and critical acclaim.

The success of these early serials opened the floodgates for private producers. Under the earlier commercial policy, advertisers would buy advertising spots from Doordarshan as per tariff. This was now replaced by an outsourced sponsorship scheme under which, by paying DD a telecast fee, private producers could avail of commercial time to produce their own content. Inevitably, this deprived DD of its hold on content. And this too resulted in the total eclipse of television drama.

Content is king, and any broadcasting organisation needs to give primacy to content makers. If DD wants to get back on its feet, an overall policy overhaul could still augur well and bring back drama to television quite profitably. The Thrissur Kendra experience has convincingly proven this.

The writer retired as Additional Director-General of Doordarshan and is a media consultant with a passion for television and books.

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