DD National—state-owned Doordarshan’s flagship public entertainment television channel—is set to undergo a revamp with a fresh lineup of content, including a 75-episode series capturing tales of the country’s unsung heroes and lesser-known stories of Indian history, News18 has learnt.
The series tentatively named Swaraj, to be produced by Mumbai-based production house Contiloe Pictures, will highlight India’s heroes and historical stories from 1498 when Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama first reached India to 1947 when the country got independence from the British.
It will be commemorating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav—the central government campaign to mark 75 years of India’s independence.
Contiloe has produced a host of popular television soaps in the past, particularly mythological and historical ones, such as Sankatmochan Mahabali Hanuman and Vighnaharta Ganesha aired on Sony TV, Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat on Colors and Jhansi Ki Rani on Zee TV, among others.
The journey
Industry sources told News18 that each of the stories in Swaraj will trace India’s journey from 1498 and will highlight many of the country’s unsung heroes while sharing lesser-known historical stories of this period.
“It will document stories of how the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and the British came to India during this period and instances of how India fought back on several occasions,” a source said. “The series will be of high quality and at par with content aired by top online curated content platforms. Over Rs 50 crore will be spent in making it.”
Fresh start
The series is part of the batch of fresh shows that Prasar Bharati is acquiring under its new content acquisition policies from around 10 production houses, including Saibaba Telefilms, Seema Kapoor Production, Endemol Shine India, Balaji Telefilms, etc.
Prasar Bharati has three new content acquisition policies for DD. This includes a direct assignment process, under which Doordarshan selects a reputed production house and provides a theme for making content.
There is also a revenue-sharing model under which production houses can produce content on a theme provided by DD or suo moto and then the revenues are shared between the two.
DD can also acquire content not aired by free-to-air channels at a limited price.
“There will be two hours of fresh, quality programmes on DD National during weekdays as well as weekends. For weekends, there are plans to have reality musical shows,” a government official told News18.
DD National, which was the top entertainment channel for the masses in the late 1980s and early 90s, had faced stiff competition from the growing number of private general entertainment channels over the last two decades, leading to a decline in its viewership and revenues.
There were multiple attempts in the past to try out various models of content acquisition, including a slot sale policy, to acquire fresh, quality content for the channel, which could not take off.
A range of fresh content being acquired now under the three new policies marks a major change for DD National.
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