MUMBAI: In order to sustain viewers interest, Doordarshan has commissioned creative producers for making programmes in the selected genre of Indian classics, children's literature, art and culture, humour and environment.

Accordingly, an investment of Rs 300 million has been made to produce nearly 800 half-an-hour episodes on Indian classics in 15 languages including Kashmiri.
"We have assigned prominent creative producers to create serials on some of the popular Indian literary classics. Prasar Bharati is spending about Rs 300 million on this project. DD has already started telecasting the series under Katha Sarita," Doordarshan director general Navin Kumar told indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of a press conference organised to announce the initiative.

The works of eminent authors under Indian Classic series have been selected by the Core Committee on Indian Classics under the Chairpersonship of Prasar Bharati board member Chitra Mudgal. The Committee took into consideration Sahitya Academy Award winning books, Jnanpeeth Award winning writers and other eminent classics.

Some of the eminent authors whose works are being featured under Indian classics include Agyayae, Jainender Kumar, Hari Shankar Parasai, Himanshu Joshi, Shivani, Manjul Bhagat, Ila Chand Joshi, Ghalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Kaifi Azmi, Kishan Chandra, Manoj Basu, Tara Shankar Bandhopadhyay, T Shivashankar Pillai, Cho Ramaswamy and Kalhan.

Eminent / award winning producers who have been assigned to do the programmes under the scheme include Shyam Bengal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Karnad, Amol Palekar, Muzafffar Ali, T S Narasimhan, Sagar Saharadi, Jahnu Barooah, Gautam Ghosh, A K Bir, Jyoti Swarup, Kamini Kaushal, Naresh Bedi, Benoy K Behl, Mike Pandey, Farooq Masoodi, Preeti Sapru, Suhasini Mulay, Kalpana Lazmi and Manju Singh.

DD 1 has already started telecasting the Katha Sarita series from 14 May. The series has been placed in the Sunday 11 am slot. Each classic will have a 13 episode run.