The Police Commissioners of Mumbai...

Late Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor

Last week a suave, mild, soften spoken,a gentleman and a police officer died of heart attack . He was only 62. His name was Hasan Gafoor.During the course of my duty, I had a chance to interact with him on many occasions  while I was serving the Public Broadcaster and he  the Public in Mumbai. May his soul rest in peace. 

Logo of Mumbai Police

                                    Talking about my interaction with Mumbai Police and its Commissioners I remember it was the Year 1993 when the ill fated Bomb blast took place.  The coordinated attacks where the most destructive bomb explosions in Indian History. The credibility of Mumbai Police was at its nadir.

 Comm. PoliceR D Tyagi 

  R D Tyagi was the Police commissioner. He approached DDK Mumbai, if some image building was possible for the demoralized force. At that time I used to be the Deputy Director of the TV Station. I took the onus & responsibility to do the Image building exercise and a 14 part series was born on Mumbai Police Force.

News Paper Coverage on the Mumbai Police 

R S Sharma(left) with Comm.Police Mehrotra & Dep.Dir.DD Mukesh Sharma 

 That was the beginning of Doordarshan's cordial relationship with Mumbai Police and its Commissioners.The Series which started with Mr RD Tyagi culminated when Mr Subhash Malhotra became the CP of Mumbai   

 R S Sharma series facing the DD Camera for the TV series  when he was Jt. CP  

Inspector Madhukar Zende 

Right from police history, law & order, crime and punishment, fingerprinting, nakabandi to narcotics & drugs we tried to cover all the aspects of Mumbai police.There was an episode on how Inspector Madhukar Zende captured the notorious killer Charles Shobhraj who is now languishing in jail in Nepal. Retired inspector Zende came to DD studios to narrate the story. 

Late Hemant Karkare

                        

The icing on the cake was the episode which was anchored and presented by another gifted officer of Mumbai police late Hemant Karkare whom we lost during 26/11. He was  the Deputy Commissioner in the department of Narcotics & Drugs. This was the best episode of the series, since Mr Hemant Karkare went beyond the call of duty and put his heart and soul in it.

Another Police Commissioner whom I still share a wonderful rapport is Mr MN Singh. In fact his tenure as the Mumbai Police commissioner and mine as the Director DDK Mumbai coincided. He was a proactive policeman and very positive in his approach. Couple of times he came to the studios to air his views.  

M N Singh with Mukesh Sharma at DDK Mumbai

    A N Roy was another Police Commissioner whom I interacted with more when he was heading the traffic police of Mumbai. During his tenure as the Police Commissioner he came to DD to inaugurate  a TV play which had the star cast comprising of  Policeman in service. That was the first time, such an experiment was done by the Mumbai Police with the pub caster         

A N Roy at DD studios with Mukesh Sharma and  the star cast

  The last time I had managed to bring together a battery of retired Police Commissioners was in the year 2001 when  I started a new program on DD Sahyadri called Saap Seedi or Snakes & Ladder . Four  Veterans from the Mumbai police participated. Needless to mention the show  took  the fortunes of  DD Sahydri Channel to greater heights.

All about Innovation at DDK Mumbai

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0900 RESPONDING TO THE SATELLITE CHALLENGE Mukesh Sharma, Director Doordarshan Mumbai: reviving DD’s fortunes Gokul Singh Khatre, Nepal TV: asserting a Nepalese identity Mukesh Sharma Director Doordarshan Mumbai gave a presentation on the setting up of the Doordashan Marathi language satellite channel Sahyadri. The channel had come into existence as DD-10 in August 1994 with 10 hours of telecasting. In April 2000 the channel was renamed Sahyadri and launched as a 24 hour channel. Between 1430 and 2000, the transmissions had terrestrial support from 104 transmitters in Maharashtra and Goa, giving the channel access to more than 50 million viewers. By the year 2000, four more Marathi channels had come into existence - Alpha Marathi in the Zee Network, Eenadu Marathi , Prabhat from an NRI Group, and Tara formerly in the Star Group. Alpha Marathi had established the lead with 35-40% of channel reach, whereas Sahyadri at that time was at around 3%. The connectivity of the channel in cable and satellite homes was very poor; the signals were distorted by the cable operators; the programming was unimaginative; the transmission quality bad; and the staff had low morale and lacked motivation. Mukesh Sharma took over as Director in May 2000 with the aim of making Sahyadri the leading Marathi channel. Nearly 20 hours of live programming was started, with more phone-in programmes, more colourful and vibrant sets and a new presentation style. Through the intervention of the minister ( Arun Jaitley), the channel was given a place on the prime band and better cable connectivity was achieved. Better rapport with DD engineers brought an improvement in video quality. Careful scheduling pitched a successful afternoon phone-in programme called ‘Hello Officer’ against feature films on other channels. The police commissioner, who featured in one programme, told DD: ‘ I had better move my office here as things move faster!’ Capacity to cover live events was increased. Live coverage of the International Fleet Review was a technical feat for the station. More than 50% of airtime was given to public service programmes. Over a period of a year, new young talent was introduced. New five minute slots were created which brought additional advertising revenues. All slots were sold to the highest bidder, with no favouritism whatsoever. A number of innovative gameshows were developed in house. After a gap of several years, film stars, VIPs and celebrities began to participate in programmes. Two additional news bulletins were introduced ( bringing new revenues) ; daily programme meetings with staff helped to raise standards and overcome technical and production problems; the station also demanded a level playing field from the press and improved its media profile. In due course, it was asked to produce a national phone-in featuring great artists like Bismillah Khan. Mukesh Sharma said his philosophy as Director was ‘to remain a subject to my people and not act as Director’. He would call up the station at 0200 or 0400 to talk to programme and engineering staff. ‘Only when you’re crazy, do you get things working’ he said. Within twelve months, there had been spectacular growth in the channel’s audience - from 3% to 43%. In April 2000, it had 29.3 million urban viewers and 19.5 million rural viewers - with over 50 million viewer in total. It had succeeded in becoming the leading Marathi language channel. Mukesh Sharma set out the vision for Sahyadri in 2001-2002: a) to ensure that it maintained its number one position among Marathi channels b) to increase viewership by another 25% c) to increase the revenue target by another 50% and d) to ensure that the public service broadcasting mandate of the channel remained intact.

Aamir Khan in the midst of Mahacharcha at DDK Mumbai..Birthday rememberence..

  By 2006 DDK Mumbai had become a force to reckon with.It had withstood the storm of the regional satellite channels Film personalities and celebrities alike paid a visit to  Doordarshan as and when invited.   

 Aamir Khan offers a hand shake to Mukesh Sharma (Director) during his visit to DDK Mumbai

I remember it was 14th April 2006, just after a month of his 41st birthday, when Aamir khan visited the Anti-Narmada dam agitators, sitting on Dharna and hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar Road in New Delhi, demanding that the height of the dam not be raised. This was a shot in the arm for the agitators. Just after a week on a Friday when DDK Mumbai use to produce a  topical, very popular  LIVE program Mahacharcha, in Marathi, that I invited Aamir khan to participate. He readily obliged, since I had chosen Anti Narmada Dam Agitation as the subject.

A googly from the audience in the studios at DDK Mumbai

Though the live show was in Marathi, but  once on Air, Aamir Khan slipped into the skin of the topic with ease and was at his best during the Q&A session. 

 "I do not know about the technicalities involved in raising the height of the dam. What I do know is that farmers have been displaced from their land and they have lost their livelihood. Till the people who have already been displaced by the dam are not rehabilitated, the height of the dam should not be raised.""Last week when I was in Delhi, I passed by Jantar Mantar and  I decided to come back and learn more about their problems," he told the viewers.

Aamir Khan with the audience 

Seems to be impressed ..

 2012 happens to be the 100th year of Indian cinema. And on 14th March  2012 Aamir Khan adds one more glorious year to his life & works May he continue to captivate audience  & inspire them through his  extraordinary brand of cinema