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TELEVISION: MYTHOLOGICALS

Banking On Faith

By Methil Renuka

The gods have been kind to actor Nitish Bharadwaj-Vishnu in Vishnu Puran, aired at 10 a.m. on Sundays on Zee TV-who, as Krishna in B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat, made devotees of countless fans. Today, Bharadwaj, who extolled the virtues of the soul to Arjuna, has started a spiritual portal, using the e-mail address krishna@soulsearchindia.com.

When not playing a TV-god, Bharadwaj is busy readying the script of Geeta Saar, his directorial debut, where he will once again play Krishna. ''Mythologicals are lucrative to be in,'' says television's incarnate Yadava prince resolutely.

As indeed they must be, if numbers are any indication. The Ramayan-Mahabharat legacy has spawned at least 10 mythological serials on air today, and five more are in the pipeline: Gayatri, Shrimad Bhagwad, Jai Jagdambe, Maharathi Karn, and Geeta Saar. Four serials-Ma Shakti on Star Plus, Shree Ganesh on Sony TV, Jai Ganesh on Zee TV, and Shree Brahma Vishnu Mahesh on Sabe TV-debuted between October-November last year.

Every God has his day on the tube these days: from Sunday through Saturday, there's Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesh, Durga, Hanuman ... gods and goddesses with animated arms, clubs and chakras are vying for air time, scoring (rating) points over each other. At least two (Jai Mata Ki, Jai Ganga Maiya) of Doordarshan's top 10 programmes as per tam's averages for March 11 to 17 are mythologicals. At one time, Ramanand Sagar's Shree Krishna fetched DD close to Rs 110 crore in ad revenue.

Needless to say, the godly preponderance has also generated lookalikes. Last November saw the birth of two Ganeshas on Sunday: Shree Ganesh at 8.30 a.m. on Sony and Jai Ganesh half-an-hour later on Zee. Sunday has been God-day since Mahabharat and still enjoys a chunk of mythological programming-as many as five such serials are on air between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m, prompting Ma Shakti director Ravi Chopra to remark: ''There's no room for another God". Incidentally, the Chopras are ready with their next venture, Shrimad Bhagwad, soon to go on air.

Clearly, the cotton-capped mountain abodes and ''period'' sets, the blinding green and yellow costumes and the overcrowding have managed to retain the attention of viewers and advertisers over the years. Even Uttar Ramayan-a digitised version of Ramayan with ''a refreshing new look'' for Sony TV-has been among the top 15 programmes on the channel. As Sagar, with three running serials of the genre on air, says, mythologicals can be ''told and retold thanks to a now-religious public''.

For TV channels, mythological serials are channel-driving mantras that bolster the programming mix. ''Gods are always a safe bet,'' quips a media planner from Lintas, ''and as popular as any other genre on TV''. Mythologicals enjoy a 20 per cent audience share next only to game shows (40 per cent), a survey showed last year. And the channels know it only too well. Star TV, in its ''Indianisation of the channel'', premiered Chopra's Ma Shakti in October last year, on Thursdays, an hour before its blockbusting Kaun Banega Crorepati goes on air at 9 p.m. Says Star's Executive Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Sumantra Dutta: ''Ma Shakti helped prove we have the mass audience as well.'' Today, the serial is among the channel's Top 10 programmes, up from its No. 25 position in November.

November also saw new-entrant Sabe TV joining the god-brigade with Sagar's Shree Brahma Vishnu Mahesh at 8 p.m. on Monday. ''Religion sells,'' says a channel official, ''mythologicals cut through the clutter and strengthen the programming mix.'' Agrees Sony's head of programming Rekha Nigam: ''Mythological serials make sound business sense today.'' Sony's Shree Ganesh has consistently enjoyed Top 10 ratings. So have Zee's Jai Ganesh (TRP: 3.1, tam: March 11-17) and the channel's other mythological, Vishnu Puran.

With rating points assured, advertisers are also clued in. Om Namoh Shivay, which just completed its four-year-plus run on DD-I, had a major like Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) entering into an agreement with its maker Creative Eye four months ago to buy its re-telecast rights on other channels. Says an HLL spokesperson: "Om Namoh Shivay enjoyed a significant viewership among target audiences of some of our brands like Wheel detergent.''

There's no dearth of content either. Dheeraj Kumar's Creative Eye, for example, has ''400 out of 1,250 hours in its library devoted to mythological serials''. The company's next offering is Om Namoh Narayana on Sahara TV. Sanjay Khan, whose Jai Hanuman has just wrapped up a four-year-run on DD under his Numero Uno International banner, is set to launch two more celestial sagas, Maharathi Karn (''Mahabharat from the point of view of Karn''), and Jai Jagdambe (''a story of Goddess Durga''). Says Khan: ''Mythologicals are full of brilliant colours and pageantry, and are especially relevant since most of us have not read the Puranas.''

Most of the colour is due to sophisticated technology that has replaced the crude special effects of the yesteryears. Says Kumar: ''Visually, one episode will equal 10 episodes of a social serial, costing Rs 12-14 lakh. Real time rendering, chroma key, compositing, virtual reality and layering have taken over. The computer screen is as important today as the sets.'' Technology has made it possible to make demons appear out of Vishnu's ears, replace cardboard lions with live, kicking animals, and show audiences heavens they have never seen.

But technology comes with a price tag. The Chopras spent close to Rs 5 crore on importing special-effects equipment from the US: Intel Pentium III dual processors, Editplus, Effect and Paint software, the works. For Ma Shakti's first episode-where Ma divides into Kali, Saraswati and Lakshmi, then merges into Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh-the Chopras ordered special effects worth Rs 25 lakh. The episode took Chopra's graphics team three weeks to create. Says graphics coordinator Navin Suchitta: ''If we don't show something new every two weeks, ratings will drop.''

A far cry from the Ramayan days when, according to Sagar, ''People laughed at our special effects." But the Gulf War ''changed all that'', since it brought cable television in its wake. For now, the Chopras, the Sagars and the Khans have the gods, advertisers and viewers on their side, and the divine innings looks set to be a long one. Ayushmaan bhava (long live), the mythological till then.

-with Himanshi Dhawan

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