BENGALURU: Many years ago, I had a friend. Perhaps my best friend, certainly my only friend. I would stare at my friend (who lived in a square box) and entertained me all day. Well, ‘entertained’ is a bit rich — Doordarshan flashed images and sounds for me to watch, enraptured. For many of my generation who grew up in small towns, Doordarshan was a friend.
People born post-liberalisation will never truly grasp what Doordarshan meant. The only television channel in India, and run by the Central government’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Doordarshan was offered like a balanced diet of entertainment. Movies were shown on weekends, mythological shows were reserved for Sunday mornings. Soap operas for the night, comedy shows for dinner time. The choice of programming was random — from the finals of a Wimbledon tournament, to a special bulletin on advice for irrigation.
Of course, Doordarshan wasn’t run by MBAs in suits working for MNCs. It was run by babus with Central government jobs. And so Doordarshan came with its own governmental quirks. The entire programming was tossed aside when a former PM or President passed away. The quality of the picture was almost astrologically tied to the weather conditions — resulting in the antenna doing yoga at the slightest hint of rain.
Over time, cable television uprooted Doordarshan from its monopoly. No longer could DD compete with movies being shown all day, or entire channels dedicated to cricket, news and music. Doordarshan tried launching channels like ‘DD Metro’, but finally gave up the battle. Over the years, Doordarshan was looked at as a poorer cousin of cable television.
I only watched Doordarshan on national holidays like Republic Day and Independence Day. The parades would often be followed by ‘national integration’ movies like Bombay or Roja. I found myself watching DD when I visited my family in my ‘native place’, without access to cable television. Or during cricket matches, when I wanted an alternative to the self-righteous babble of Sunil Gavaskar, and instead chose ‘Fourth Umpire’, which provided lullaby-like commentary from Arun Lal and Maninder Singh.
After all these years, how the tables have turned! The cable television revolution is all but dead. Television shows aren’t as relevant, with 4G Internet and social media having completely uprooted the need for a television at home. OTTs have made channels redundant, and vloggers get more hits than David Attenborough in his prime!
Out of curiosity, I checked out Doordarshan on Eid. I was watching the channel after years, and a lot had changed. The soap operas were all glamorous. They’d gone from the simplistic sets and long shadows of Shyam Benegal cinema, to the colourful sarees and snake bindis of Ekta Kapoor television. There were no national integration movies being played in the afternoons.
And yet, a lot hasn’t changed. The programming is still a mixed bag. Television shows are interspersed with educational shows, followed by live streaming of the proceedings in the Lok Sabha. The brands being promoted are not of the latest fintech app in the market, but of more tangential objects - like toothpaste and detergent powder. The channel was live streaming itself on its official website, and surprisingly, there weren’t any glitches. There were no pauses, with the channel asking me to pay a thousand bucks to continue watching. It wasn’t much, but it was some change.
Meeting Doordarshan again was like meeting a school friend in your 50s. We have both aged, shaken by technological changes, rounder around the edges, but still around. Just as I was smiling philosophically — the screen went blank, and a message flashed — Sorry for the Interruption. Ah, Doordarshan! There are things only you are allowed to do!
(The writer’s views are his own)