(MY COLUMN ON SATYAMEV JAYATE IN SAHARA TIMES)
Aamir Khan is no longer just a hero. He is a phenomenon.
I attribute Aamir’s achievements to his simplicity. Aamir is
not a complicated man and that is the chief reason why he is acceptable to
audiences of all kinds belonging to different demographics. He reaches out to
everyone through his work and through his presence on various media with a
comfort, an effortlessness which relaxes those who watch him, hear him and
absorb him, instead of exhausting them.
It was ages ago when I first met Aamir at a preview of his
film Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin, at Dimple Theater, Pali Hill, Bandra, when I used to be an assistant director and I remember clearly that he sat outside chewing on
his nails while others watched the movie inside the theater. At the end when
everyone stepped out, Mahesh Bhatt hugged Aamir and told him not to worry
because all those who had watched the film had loved it, so there was no reason
for them to believe that that they had left any stone unturned while making the
film, and Aamir had smiled quietly at everyone who congratulated him for his
performance and stepped out.
I have never met Aamir Khan after that but followed him through
media all along and watched almost every film which he had starred in. More
than being a versatile actor, I believe that he is a versatile thinker. Over
the years as he grew up, Aamir has understood the power he wields as a star and
has steered himself and all his actions towards impacting people through some
of the work he does and some that he supports. At the same time he realizes
that in order to do that he needs to continue to be a star, therefore the
Ghajini’s and the Dhoom 3’s carry on dominating the repertoire he is and will
keep on building.
Having been in the business of television from the time of
its emergence in India and having been one with its growth, I am but by
default, a keen observer of what plays out in its universe on a daily, weekly
and yearly basis. So when film stars began to see the commercial sense it makes
to be a performer on the small screen, starting with Mr. Bachchan in KBC and
settling down with Salman Khan’s, and now paired with Sanjay Dutt’s, tom
foolery on Bigg Boss, I have seen many succeed and many fail. I believe, and
stand firm by my belief that it is not a star that works on television.
It is a format, which either works, or doesn’t.
And no one other than Aamir Khan and Mr. Bachchan know it
better. As the publicity of their respective show’s tears through media and
grabs eyeballs for the release of their respective first episodes, they are
both aware of the responsibility they have shouldered, and that is what drives
them and keeps them working at it to make their audience not just stay, but to
swell as well.
They know that television audiences are whimsical, that they
are quirky. They know that if the format they choose to do is not sustainable,
they will fail.
So when I first heard of Satyamev Jayate, and then heard
that it was slotted to be broadcast on a Sunday morning, I knew that there was
a thinking that had gone in here, and I know that a gap had been found which
needed to be filled. I knew that it was going to be the revival of Sunday
morning entertainment for an average Indian family which had been lost in the
TRP driven madness that had gripped the media and marketing industries of our
business, for them to have considered weekday evening’s as the only available prime
time, for so many years now. I still remember watching Mashoor Mahal,
Mahabharat and Ramayan when I had just about started my career. I still so know
that good television and progressive television is what average television
viewers want despite statistics proving and speaking otherwise.
Star TV and Aamir Khan have pulled off a coup of sorts. Not
just because they have a fabulous program, now a yearly format, in place, but
also because they have propelled the industry which had got lost in those woods
which were crowding with money growing trees, back to the realization that television
is a powerful medium which has the ability to change lives, change the way
people think.
At this juncture, when India is poised to become a global
power, and when the biggest road block it faces is corruption, there could not
be a better time to release a show, on a Sunday morning when everybody can
watch, a show that can have enough impact on minds of the viewers to change
them, a vehicle designed to monitor change as it takes place.
In the life of Indian Television, there have been four
defining moments so far.
One was when India’s first long running soap opera Hum Log
gripped the nation with its perspective on the changing Indian middle class in
the early nineteen eighty’s, followed by Buniyaad and the rip roaring comedy,
Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi. The second came with the advent of Satellite Television in
the early nineteen nineties when Zee TV emerged with a path breaking Tara which
defined the contemporary urban Indian woman. The third defining moment which rocked
the space and stopped the clock from ticking, that clutched at our conscience and has
left us feeling guilty forever, was the era of the long winding saas bahu
saga’s that came straddled on the KBC horse. Thankfully KBC remained and
regressive fare was abandoned by the discerning Indian viewer.
And the fourth defining life altering moment for us to
recognize is Aamir Khan’s and Star Networks Satyamev Jayate.
Not just has the clock been fixed and time started rolling
again, it is a moment in time for all of us to realize that a nation progresses
if its television progresses and a nation regresses, if its television
regresses.
All those sitting on high chairs blindly depending upon
statistics, must understand, that if it was only numbers which determined success
and failure, numbers that decided what was relevant as opposed to what was not,
then they should be on a holiday and let their drivers do their jobs.
Think!!!
Comments