MUMBAI: The Producers’ Council, a north-eastern states association of the empanelled private producers of Doordarshan, has accused Doordarshan of uploading on its website two controversial notifications that could spell disaster for the local programme producers.
The association lamented that the notifications, that were biased against programme producers of the region, had been planned to benefit big production houses of Mumbai and Delhi, the Assam Tribune reported.
In a communique released to the press in Guwahati, the council alleged that the first of the two DD notifications announces a fresh set of guidelines for commissioned programmes for telecast on North East DD-channels in which it was mentioned that only half of the programmes made in this category would be reserved for the residents o the North-Eastern states. The organisation mentioned that there were previous attempts to work in the interests of the so-called big production houses, and has demanded that the previously agreed formula of reserving 75 per cent programmes for producers of the North East should be retained.
As reported by indiantelevision.com earlier, though DD Doordarshan mentioned in its notifications that it would adopt a communication strategy that would attract viewership through a content mix which would be sensitive to the aspirations of the local population, the association maintained, it would not be possible to ensure this if producers from outside the region are assigned programmes.
Doordarshan had also hiked the non-refundable processing fees payable by producers by a whopping 500 per cent from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000. Since Doordarshan’s operations in the North East were part of its social commitment and are specially funded by the Government of India, the council reasoned, that processing fees payable by producers of the North East should be unchanged.
It said that it had no objection if producers from outside the region were charged at the enhanced rate.
The association also mentioned of the DD notification inviting proposals for its upcoming 24x7 satellite channel DD-Arunprabha in the Commissioned Programmes Category.
DD-Arunprabha had been operating from DDK, Itanagar, and DD claimed the channel would attract young people of NE with contemporary entertainment shows embedded with informative content.
However, the programme content, the council claimed, would be affected if producers were not provided reasonable time to conceive and formulate the same, stating that producers had been provided only 20 days to formulate programmes and dispatch them by mail to reach Delhi by 17 January, 2017.
As reported by indiantelevision.com earlier, proposals had been invited for subjects as myriad as thrillers, mythological serials, daily soap operas, telefilms, quiz shows and travelogues either in English or in Hindi with preference being given to programmes based on themes and subjects relevant to the region. The council has sought that the local producers should be given at least a month additional time and that the last date be extended up to 28 February, 2017.
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