In the 1980s, when Anurradha Prasad, a jeans and T-shirt clad twenty-something journalist, went to cover Parliament proceedings, senior print journalists looked upon her rather curiously - not to say enviously. But young Prasad was determined to prove herself in the up and coming electronic medium. After learning the ropes in the erstwhile PTI TV and Observer News Channel, Anurradha carved a niche for herself as a programmer and bagged her first slot on DD with Aaj Ki Baat.
After having floated B.A.G Films, Prasad got down to serious business. She took the news and current affairs route and then added infotainment to her repertoire. Today, she is the brain behind one of the fastest growing production houses in the country. Not just that, a look at her programming list proves that she is one of the hottest programmers who is tuned in to the audience's pulse across different genres- be it soaps, docudramas, current affairs or crime.
With more than 1,500 hours of diversified content, Prasad has always broken new ground in terms of concept, treatment or TRPs. So, be it a Rihaee on Sony, a Sansani or Red Alert on Star News or a soap like KumKum on Star Plus. And apart from the programming part of it, Managing Director Prasad is also involved in running and expanding the company. Thinking ahead of her times, Prasad believes convergence is the future as she plans to take her company ahead with 30 sec and one minute content on mobiles and broadband.
Prasad gives Indiantelevision.com's Seema Pherwani the gen on what's happening at B.A.G. Films. Excerpts from an interview:
You started off as a journalist way back in the late 1980s. So how did you turn to television which was in the nascent stage then? After learning the ropes there I moved on to the Observer News Channel. Those were the early days of electronic journalism and it was real fun because we were experimenting with the medium. On the other hand, it was also a fight with senior print journalists. They were not able to digest that a twenty-something jeans-clad reporter in sneakers could enter Parliament with her camera. So, I remember, there was a huge ruckus the first time I went to cover Parliament proceedings. But the writing was on the wall - the younger generation was all ready to take on the print order and TV was going to emerge as a more aggressive medium. |
||
How did you get around to floating your own company? I did a programme called Fiscal Fitness on Zee TV (1991) and later did a few business programmes which Pritish Nandy anchored. So, I had honed my skills and proved a point. TV was booming and things were happening and later I decided to move on. I then landed up floating a company. Three names were rejected but later I went on to call it B.A.G Films Ltd i.e Bhagwan Allah and God. |
||
You got your first break with DD. Was it a conscious decision to stick to news and current affairs? Over time I also ventured into infotainment, so there was a cookery show Zaika ka Safar then musicals like Picnic Antakshari on DD. After two years we were thinking of joining hands with a corporate structure like Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts, but then things did not work out. |
||
|
||
Your recent docu-drama Rihaee which deals with crime against women on Sony Television has created quite a buzz. A few years ago you did a show called Haqeeqat on Sahara, which dealt with human rights violations. So, was Haqeeqat the first step towards Rihaee? Rihaee deals with a sensitive topic i.e crime against women. So, we have dealt with the subject with care and sensitivity. Also, since it's on a mass entertainment channel, the stories have been very sleekly packaged and we are also offering a positive solution to the problem. |
||
Does it worry you that it has been pitched at a time slot that will directly compete with the most popular serial of our times, Kyunki...? I hope to set in motion a paradigm shift in terms of programme pitching and watching. As far as the success of the show goes, I think in today's scenario, no content aggregator can say that this will work or not, simply, because TV's such an evolving and dynamic medium and one has to re-engineer every second. Viewers are fickleminded and the remote is in their hands! |
||
What do you think a programme like Rihaee will achieve for general entertainment channels and for people, in general? In our country, the biggest culprit is the government machinery, which has failed to help out people. |
||
Was Haqeeqat (on Sahara) a show before its time, considering it was not able to shake up the government machinery or solve too many problems? |
||
What makes B.A.G. Films tick and which shows have proved to be a paradigm shift for you? |
||
What have your two shows Sansani and Red Alert been able to achieve for the channel? And why has the channel commissioned two shows in the same genre for you? |
||
You share a special relationship with Star considering you have more than three shows on Star News and two on Star Plus? |
||
The selling rate of crime shows across channels has really gone up. What do you attribute this to? Also, I believe the numbers game and fight for eyeballs between the news channels has also led to the proliferation of the genre. News channels are trying to show things which are stretching everybody's sensibilities. Also, with the increase in the crime rate our people are in a crisis and these shows fill the gap. |
||
|
||
Your show Kumkum on Star Plus had seen a dip in the TRPs recently. Why so? |
||
What makes the serial tick, as it has been the key driver for Star in the afternoon band? |
||
How much credit would you take for your successful shows? |
||
What's the structure of the organisation ? |
||
How does the company's bottomlines look like? |
||
But there are so many such schools in the country. Why one more? |
||
What kind of movies is B.A.G. Films producing? |
||
What is the company's growth strategy? |
||
Is there any likelihood of a network buying a stake in your company? Photos by Sanjay Sharma/Indiapix Network |