• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

It's the content that counts

Menka Shivdasani

Sandeep Goyal, Zee Network's Group CEO, Broadcasting, had an eventful start to his new career. On the first day at Zee, May 16, the Pradhan Mantri came a-visiting. He wasn't the genuine article, of course -- just a character played by Kay Kay Menon in a serial -- but just for that one moment, as the gun-toting commandos came running in, it seemed real enough.

The occasion was the launch of Pradhan Mantri (Fridays, 10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.) -- not to be confused with the BBC-produced version of Yes Minister (Ji Mantriji), which coincidentally launched around the same time. Zee's story, conceptualised by the wel l-known editor M.J. Akbar, is a serious show about a prime minister who is sworn in temporarily while the country is facing a major political crisis. Since he's aware that he is living on borrowed time and can be shunted out at any time, he decides he ha s nothing to lose and that he should use the PM's chair to steer the country in the right direction.

Now that last bit, surely, sounds like a bit of make-believe (most temporary PMs would use their short time in power for their own ends, one would think), and perhaps that is why director Ketan Mehta referred to the show as ``social science fiction'' -- ``an improbable but believable projection into the future''. M.J. Akbar said this political drama was really ``truth using the cloak of fiction'', referring, no doubt, to the fact that most of the other political characters there were extremely devious p eople.

Will Pradhan Mantri help to revive Zee TV's flagging fortunes and restore the reputation of media mogul Subhash Chandra? Zee certainly managed to rustle up several celebrity quotes praising the serial. Filmmaker Shyam Benegal called it a ``marvellous tel evision serial''; politician Satish Sharma said the show ``will open all the right doors to ensure that the right Government comes through'' (too bad, it isn't so easy), and Mahesh Jethmalani, senior lawyer, says it has ``filled the vacuum on Indian tele vision''. It also seems to be popular with less celebrated viewers whom I've talked to, though one of them pointed out that he had only watched it because a friend of his was involved, and that the script needed major editing.

Subhash Chandra's own response to the question was, naturally, sharp. ``You are mistaking Zee Network as being equivalent only to Zee TV,'' he said. "But we have 14 channels and all genres of programming from entertainment, to infotainment, to news and c hildren's programming. Our viewership is 30 per cent of the eyeballs of the whole country's satellite industry. There is no need to take shelter behind political programming and nor do I have a political agenda''.

Sandeep, on the other hand, knows that a single serial cannot help bring Zee back to the top; there is much to be done. ``The only challenge is to regain the market leadership,'' he told me, ``and the only way to do that is with good material''. What con stitutes ``good material'' is, of course, a subjective thing, and Sandeep says it is ``partly intuitive, partly scientific''.

In fact, during his earlier stint as president of Rediffusion-DY&R, he had instinctively recognised the value of Kaun Banega Crorepati with Amitabh Bachchan as the presenter, and told Star Plus they had a great programme. Now he's going to find himself p itted against the success that the show has brought to Star, and clearly is poised for battle.

Sandeep has a reputation for ``a hard-nosed, aggressive business approach'' -- that's how he is described in the official profile, and it's a quality that comes through in a personal conversation with him as well. He isn't saying too much yet about what he plans to do, but Sandeep has a formidable track record; while he was president of Rediffusion, profits are supposed to have gone up 200 per cent in three years. Earlier, as head of the agency's Delhi operations, he had grown the office from a Rs 2 cro re billing base to over Rs 70 crore in less than four years. Whether he can work the same magic with Zee remains to be seen.

If documentaries rather than political drama are more to your taste, you would probably have tuned in the National Geographic Channel's global premiere of `Pearl Harbor: Legacy of Attack' on May 27, marking the 60th anniversary of the attack that led to America's entry into World War II. Explorers-in-residence Dr. Robert Ballard (discoverer of Titanic) and Stephen Ambrose have attempted to piece together the events at Pearl Harbor, using state-of-the-art equipment with submersible cameras especially des igned for the series, to locate the sunken Japanese midget submarine suspected to have played a part in the attack.

``History always holds a strange fascination for people,'' says Aseem Kapoor, Associate Vice-President, National Geographic Channel, adding that the value of the documentary goes far beyond this. ``It also alerts people to the ecological time bomb that e xists, with half-a-million gallons of fuel still lying underwater and seeping out drop by drop,'' he says.

If you missed the two-hour telecast yesterday, look out for their Submarine Week that follows -- an exploration of the ocean depths and mysteries surrounding submarines, their missions and their cargoes.

There will also be a Hindi version of the documentary some time soon, but Aseem says dates have not been finalised yet. `Pearl Harbor: Legacy of Attack' is, however, being telecast again on August 5, when it will be accompanied by Pearl Harbor: Beyond th e Movie. If the subject fascinates you -- as well it might -- you would also find it worthwhile to log on to www.nationalgeographic.com for expedition dispatches.

The author can be contacted at menkashivdasani@ftnetwork.com

Picture: A still from Pradhan Mantri' on Zee TV.