Remembering DDK Mumbai on its 41st Birthday.....on 2nd October 2012

The Who's Who of Doordashan ...Back to the roots

On 2nd October 2012 DDK Mumbai celebrates its 41st birthday. The Kendra was set up on 2nd oct 1972. The last major celebrations took place  on Oct.2nd 2006 when I was the director of the Kendra.

We had especially invited all the past Producers, Engineers, Programmers.

The list of the who's who included Gajendra Singh, past video editor of DDK Mumbai who is today a successful creative head and the originator of Antakshari on Zee TV.

The Pub Casters who served  Doordarshan for nation building

Felicitation of Pradeep Bhide the Newscaster of DD Sahyadri

Bijondas Gupta , a successful Art director with Bollywood, once headed the Scenic department of DDK Mumbai.

Satish Bhatia a cameraman, associated with the popular serial Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi.

Madhvi Mutatkar, programme executive of DDK, later resigned and headed the Zee TV as its President.

  

Madhvi Mutatkar

Bijon Das Gupta

Vinay Apte , now a popular Actor and Director in the Marathi Film Industry, worked as the producer at DDK Mumbai.

Who does'nt know about the popular serial Aahat on Sony. But how many of us know that BP Singh the Director and Cameraman was DDK Mumbai's product . He too came for the reunion.

Also present was Nina Raut , the producer of the successful programme Tak Dhina Dhin which ran on DD sahyadri for more then 7 years. (Incidentally her husband Mr Bharat Kumar Raut is the sitting Shiv Sena MP from Rajya sabha).   

Neena Raut

Bharat Kumar Raut

Aadesh Bandekar who fought the recent election on Shiv Sena ticket, was present to grace the occasion.

Manju singh, Pradeep Bhide (the evergreen newscaster of DDK), Yakoob Sayeed, Madhu Shrivastav....the list is end less

Bijon das Gupta, Gajendra Singh and BP Singh

BP Singh of CID fame

Gajendra Singh of Sur Keshtra

After the telecast of the programme, I received numerous letters and phone calls from all parts of Maharashtra. Some thing new, something different was presented to Sahyadri viewers.

The Times of India , 8th Oct 2006 wrote an article entitled THEY KILLED THE RADIO by Bella Jasinghani. I quote the 1st para from it:

"Comparing two dinosaur not always a futile exercise. Last week,Vividh Bharti & Doordarshan (DD) observed their anniversaries one day apart. Sahyadri, which is the name Mumbai DD goes by, hosted a hugely successful live gathering of television stalwarts to celebrate its 35th birthday on Oct 2.However the very next day,Vividh Bharati, the radio station that was once the opium of the masses, stumbled its way into its golden jubilee without any fanfare"......

Hope in its 41st year DDK Mumbai will do something different, something new for its numerous FANS out there..

Black & White colourful years of Shabana Azmi...The relentless crusader

On 18th Sept 2012 Shabana Azmi turned....Well that's not important. What is important is that she continues to work with the same zeal and enthusiasm what she did a quarter century ago, when she became the Chairperson of Childern' Film Society, India (CFSI).

 Shabana Azmi had succeded  Jaya Bachchan. Ms Azmi was the woman in a hurry. The moment she took over as the Chairperson, she wanted the best  Directors of Bollywood to come forward and make children films for CFSI. She used all her goodwill and contacts to ensure no stone was left unturned. From Pankaj Parashar( Karamchand, Chaalbaaz and Jalwa fame) to Shekhar Kapoor, Ila Arun all came to CFSI to ensure that some good work can be done to elevate the standard of Children films in our country.

 The film Asman se Gira produced and directed by Pankaj Parashar was the costliest film (37Lakhs in 1986-87 ) produced in the history of CFSI. Inspite of the Music by Louis Bank and actors such as Anupam Kher,  Amjad khan and Raghubir Yadav, the film did not click with the young audience.I remember children walking out of the theater in the International Film Festival at Banglore.

But that's what the uncertainty of celluloid business is all about....
Shabani Azmi continued with her good work at CFSI. She, for the first time, sold the video rights of CFSI films in the public domain in order to bring children cinema  home.This was a bold step since CFSI was very particular about showing its films to children, only in theaters and that too only in morning shows

Another feather in the cap for Ms Azmi as the Chairperson of CFSI was to revive the Indo Mauritius Film Co Production, the foundation of which was laid by me in 1984 during my visit to Mauritius.
 However the shooting of the co production film, could start only after Mrs Jaya Bachchan returned to CFSI.
In short the tenure of Shabana Azmi as chairperson of CFSI was short but dynamic.

 It is not in our hands to choose our parents or our Boss. I was lucky to have Shabana Azmi as my Boss.
May she continue to live up to her reputation as a relentless crusader. Belated Happy Birthday Shabanaji.

with Shabana Azmi B & W photos

10 years ago Ashaji celebrated her birthday at DDK Mumbai...

8/9/12 happens to be the birthday of the Melody Queen Asha Bhosle. Exactly 10 years ago, she celebrated her birthday at DDK Mumbai. We organised a cake for her and she took calls from the viewers in the LIVE pro-gramme Hello DD. She may not remember it today, but that day she accepted the fact that this was the best birthday gift DD Sahyadri could give her. The icing on the cake was her parting gift when she wrote these famous lines in the memoir book at DDK:

"Bahut dino ke baad Doordarshan pe aai hoon. Bahut badal gaya hai. Kaaran ye lagta hai ki jawaan station director ke aa jane se , ye accha badlav aaya hai. Ab yahan aana accha lagega ''. ASHA BHOSLE.....

              THANK YOU ASHAJI AND MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY : 8/9/12