Doordarshan India: Once a Monopoly - The Unprecedented Cult

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Doordarshan India: How it became a household name and revolutionized the Indian television industry

During childhood, a few things annoyed me: fetching the cricket ball from weird places, getting scolded by mom for not refilling the water bottles post our playing sessions, and adjusting the rooftop TV antenna to catch the radio signals. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the evolution of TV had just started in India. Only the elite class had the privilege of buying a TV set. Over a period of time, TV started penetrating every household, and finally, people had a source of proper information and entertainment. When you talk about rise of the Television era, you just can’t forget Doordarshan India.

The Rise of Doordarshan India

When it all began, there was only one channel that dominated the content delivery, and that channel was “Doordarshan,” or only “DD” as we still call it. Doordarshan is an Indian Government-funded public broadcasting channel, that was once the only source of information for Indians, apart from AIR (All India Radio). Doordarshan India was launched way back in 1959 and only in Delhi initially. With AIR, it was and still is part of the largest public broadcasting agency in India – Prasar Bharti. Doordarshan became a national broadcasting channel only in 1982 when the TV services extended to multiple cities.

Anyways, not digging much into the history, Doordarshan India had two popular channels back then: DD 1 and DD 2 a.k.a. DD Metro. These two were All-India based channels. DD1 catered to the genre of news, regional content, sports, children series, movies, and more. DD Metro came much later than DD1 (was launched in 1984) and was more of a general entertainment channel including reality TV shows, comedy shows, and more. Later, DD also launched regional channels and a dedicated sports channel.

Private Channels and Flexibility of Doordarshan India

In the past decade and a half, there has been a sharp rise in the number of broadcasting channels in India. Where the various TV channels today have a plethora of things to offer, DD still has maintained its originality. The news content of DD has always been precise and crisp. There is no concept of sensational news or dramatization that we usually find in most of the news channels today.

If we talk about linguistics, Doordarshan India was also diverse. DD attracted viewership from different parts of the country. Apart from Hindi, Urdu, and English, it used to and still delivers the content in multiple regional languages like Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kashmiri, Tamil, etc.

Doordarshan very well understood the challenges of differently-abled people, and thus it introduced the idea of using sign language to deliver the news. From communication to sports to cartoon series, everything was at our disposal.

Famous Shows

Talking about the present, we have different channels that have exclusive telecast rights for a specific set of sports. DD, back then, also handled every sports telecast in India. So, Doordarshan India was once everything that a person wanted in the television world.

India is a land of many religions, so it was evident that some religious content had to be a part of DD. The holy books like “Ramayan” and “Mahabharata” were converted into theatrical scripts, enacted, and then telecasted. Our earlier generation used to be hooked to the TV sets on Sunday mornings. Series like “Chandrakanta,” “Rangoli,” “Chitrahaar,” “Vikram Betaal,” and many more, used to be knowledgeable and refreshing.

Not to forget, cartoons like “Silver Hawks,” “Defenders of the earth,” “The Jungle Book,” “He-Man,” and “Duck Tales” made our childhood special.

DD presented every show and news gracefully. There was no explicit content, and it would not be wrong to say that it was and still is a family channel. Then came the phase when the other TV broadcasters started infiltrating our homes; many people started getting concerned about the content that was being shown. During the examination times, I remember, most of the parents used to get their cable connection terminated so that their children were not distracted by any irrelevant content. But, DD was safe.

What is lacking?

Though Doordarshan India is still the same, it has lost its significance due to the frivolous society in which we live. Today, people are getting attracted to fast-paced, dramatic, explicit, and flashy content. It has become a status symbol.

I am not saying that only we are at fault, Doordarshan has just not been able to catch up with this fast-paced technology. It still focusses on the useful content but lacks presentation, which is an imperative today. The entertainment factor has become limited if you compare it with other channels’ feeds. We now have many talented production teams serving the private channels and bringing out innovative content.

Intervention of the Indian Government

The Indian government will have to intervene and bring about a change if our national channel has to bring back its lost charm. They will need to address the following two issues, and they are of utmost importance.

1) Limited Resources: Today, DD has a minimal number of resources and employees. The lucrative jobs that private channels offer and the lack of proper funding are the two major factors here. These factors have created a void in DD. The government will have to find alternatives to lure the right talent.

2) Old Equipment: DD still relies on old pieces of broadcasting equipment, which has become almost obsolete and are also tough to maintain. Eventually, the picture quality of the content is still the same as it was years ago. The private channels, on the other hand, are much more advanced and have advanced equipment.

I still miss those days when our life was simple and decently entertaining. Being an Indian, it would not be wrong to say that Doordarshan was once an essential part of our lives. I guess living through the ’80s and ’90s, watching Doordarshan, was a blessing.

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