In March 2020, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the first of many nationwide lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was Doordarshan that came to the rescue of millions of Indians who were confined to the isolation of their households. The state broadcaster started televising Ramayan, Mahabharat, Shri Krishna and several other ancient Indian history shows that not only broke all the TRP records, albeit shattered them.
Looking to emulate a similar feat, Prasar Bharti and Doordarshan are gearing up to produce another historical show to grab the audience’s eyeballs. The Prasar Bharti board recently met virtually through video conferencing for its 165th meeting. After the meeting, the CEO of the board, Shashi Shekhar took to Twitter to announce that approval had been granted to Doordarshan to produce a new historical show in the run-up to India’s 75th Independence day.
Prasar Bharati Board met virtually through video conferencing for its 165th meeting and discussed various issues. The meeting was chaired by the CEO @shashidigital. pic.twitter.com/SJnHsGExWW
— Prasar Bharati प्रसार भारती (@prasarbharati) February 18, 2021
“Among other matters the @prasarbharati board gave its approval to the production of a new historical television series on Doordarshan in the run-up to the 75th Year of Indian Independence. Stay tuned for further details in the coming weeks.” tweeted Shashi.
Among other matters the @prasarbharati board gave its approval to the production of a new historical television series on Doordarshan in the run up to the 75th Year of Indian Independence. Stay tuned for further details in the coming weeks. https://t.co/0nuDjBU4xp
— Shashi Shekhar Vempati शशि शेखर (@shashidigital) February 18, 2021
The details might not be out yet but one can assume that Doordarshan will be putting its sincerest efforts into making the program a hit amongst the audience. As reported by TFI last year, the I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar had given hints that Doordarshan was looking to move away from the obscure L1 process of selecting a Television program. Thus, the new show could be one of the first programs to air under the revamped process.
“We want to review this fully. The best serials should be on the national broadcaster. This is our target. We have decided that we must bring in good (programmes), allow the system to bring good serials and programmes so that people prefer public broadcasters over others,” the Minister had said.
Read more: ‘It will be a gamechanger,’ Dear Netflix and Amazon Prime, Doordarshan is coming for you
Ramayan and Mahabharat had scripted the turnaround in fortunes for Doordarshan which was languishing at the bottom of the TRP charts. According to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data–in the 13th week of last year (March 28 to April 3) Doordarshan national had received 1.5 billion viewership figures and created a record for the highest viewership figures in the channel’s long history. But a week later, in the week-14 (April 4 to April 10), it broke its own record—achieving mammoth viewership figures of 1.9 billion.
DD National continues to be No. 1 for two consecutive weeks in a row#IndiaFightsCorona#IndiaFightsBack pic.twitter.com/HPT8MhdAsz
— Prasar Bharati प्रसार भारती (@prasarbharati) April 16, 2020
The government is keen on Doordarshan achieving the gold standard it had set in its heydays and it appears that the new show could be the start of a new era for the state-broadcaster.
