Someone once said: The best way to predict your future is to create it.
In 2003 I had a dream to build a network of regional news channels. Regional Today , National Tomorrow! Was the punch line on which I started off.
24-hour Telugu news channel went on air in 2004 and it was an instant hit due to the hard work and determination my team put in. Today when I look back – the dream seems to be dipped and darkened in the inkpot of success as the network now expanded into other regional languages like Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English.
It’s a happy moment as Tv9 which started off with a vision is now India’s no 1. news network. But it is just a beginning there is more to be added on. The dream has just started to come true. It needs more vibrance. Stage one is over and now it is time for next level.
After making our mark in AP, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala – the focus is now on Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Delhi. While news channels is our forte we are now concentrating on on General Entertainment Channels (GEC). For this we are looking forward towards expanding our media business. Major expansions are directly proportional to big investments. In this process we are in talks with several leading national and international players.
Investment plans are chalked out with a bigger dream in mind. Talks are on with big players as we want to make Tv9 a name not only in national level but also internationally. Once everything is finalised Tv9 will be proud to make a formal announcement of its standing.
We hope to receive similar adulation and support from all our viewers and well wishers for our next level endeavor.
It’s time to think big, Tv9 agrees
Sai Baba and Trust
Seva is not a licence for crime and flouting all laws. Nexus between netas and trust is now crystal clear.
Tv9 & Caste
TV9 believes that our caste system, the likes of which are not known elsewhere in the world, is the bane of Indian society. It is a blot on human dignity. It breeds and legitimises discrimination among the citizens of the same country. Caste system is opposed to equal, healthy relations between one section and the other just on the basis of birth but not any other virtue. Physical untouchability leads to mental untouchability. We know almost all the gurus, god men, intellectuals, leaders, social workers, artistes, journalists, writers and poets in India are influenced by the caste. It is a sad irony that all these hypocrites go on preaching values like eradication of caste system and human equality when they themselves believe in the caste. Most of the successful Indian businessmen, doctors, engineers, professors, software people and management personnel come from upper caste social background. It is thus obvious that their family and the standard of upbringing helped them to become what they are. The poor, hungry, neglected and ill-treated millions of the society cannot compete with them.(In fact, most of them cannot even afford to have primary education as daily bread is their first and foremost problem). The terrible division caused among the Indian people by the caste system is so deep-rooted that any amount of campaign is inadequate. There should be a concerted action on the part of right-thinking citizens at least now – in this 20th millennium.
RP felicitated by the President of India
President of India Pratibha Patil felicitates TV9 CEO Ravi Prakash at the 2nd International Kuchipudi Dance Convention at the GMC Balayogi Stadium, Gachibowli, Hyderabad. Chief Minister Kiran Kumar is seen introducing RP to the President.
Ashutosh Govarikar has once again made his mark as a director of outstanding movies.
His new film ‘Khelein hum jee jaan se’ is based on real events of the Chittagong revolt against the British rulers during 1930s. The armed movement was led by a school teacher-turned-revolutionary Surya Sen (Mashterda). His followers included Tarakeshwar Dastidar, Anant Singh, Nirmal, Kalpana Dutta and Preetilata Wadedar. The revolutionary group consisting mostly teenagers, who had a short-term training, raided the British cantonment, armoury, telegraph office and later the officers’ club and killed some British officers and several soldiers. The raids were generally conspicuous of their burning patriotism and also immaturity in taking on a strong armed establishment. The bravery of the young patriots resulted in the death of several boys, suicide of Preetilata who never wanted to be arrested after successfully leading the attack of the officers’ club and arrest of the remaining. Mashterda and Tarakeshwar were awarded capital punishment.
Perhaps, the most authentic account of the Chittagong movement is by Kalpana Dutta in her book written in early 1940s. The book was translated into Telugu by Anisetti Subba Rao of the progressive writers’ association(‘Chittagong Viplava Veerulu’, Prajasakti Book depot, Bezawada). The Telugu book had such an influence over the Telugu people that hundreds of girls were named after Kalpana Dutta, particularly in Khammam, Krishna and Guntur districts of AP. It is my feeling that the film should have also been based on the reminiscences of Kalpana Dutta. For example, the youngest revolutionary Tegra joined the team after the raid on the cantonment and he was killed in action in the hills. Anant Singh was a source of inspiration to the young people of Chittagong. Singh had accepted the challenge by Kodi Rama Murty, the renowned Andhra Pahalwan during his circus show at Chittagong and successfully broken the iron chains with bare hands.
The selection of artistes by Govarikar is apt. He made them not to act but to behave like those who lived in those times. The re-creation of the scenes of the revolt, the Bangla households and the surroundings of Chittagong is worth-mentioning. The way he has shown the photos of the real heroes with a brief description in the end of the movie is a heartening variety. However, the tunes of the songs lack the flavour of a revolutionary movement.
At least in Andhra Pradesh, which is an abode of left movements, no proper publicity seems to have been made. Very few knew that the film is about the heroes of Chittagong. As a result, in Hyderabad, after one week, the film was limited to only one theater.The movie is a neat, honest attempt. This should have been made long back. Better late than never. An inspiring phase of our history has been recorded. It is for the audiences to see that such movies run for a reasonably long time so that directors and producers devoted to sincere film-making feel encouraged to bring laurels for Indian cinema. Khelein Hum Jee Jaanse is a must for all those who respect human dignity.
RP felicitated in Malaysia
Founder and CEO of TV9 Ravi Prakash was felicitated by the Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur in October, 2010.
What you may not know about Ganesh Festival: An appeal !
Come September the entire atmosphere will be reverberating with Ganesh festival mood. If you live in cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Visakhapatnam, you will know the kind of celebration that happens for 10 straight days. The streets overflow with people to see the beautifully decorated Ganesh pandals. Loud music and expansive lighting greets you everywhere during the festive time. At the end of 10 days, the Ganesh idol immersion is done with even bigger processions. It’s like a carnival. Musical sounds fill the air.
What happens next ? Have a look…
The sight of these Ganesh Idols is appalling. To be honest I could not even see the pictures, it is so awful. Seeing the Ganesh Idols lying on the shores like these, whom we worship all our lives is mind boggling.
This post is an appeal to readers and TV9 viewers to spread the awareness and importance of using Environmentally friendly Ganesh Idols.
A CAUTION: The idols are made out of Plaster of Paris(PoP), which casts typically disintegrated water, thus making it necessary to be non-suitable for bathing, showering, or other activities involving contact with water. In addition, Plaster of Paris casts are not air permeable, and thus do not allow for the circulation of air beneath the cast which greatly facilitates the evaporation and removal of moisture trapped between cast and skin. This often leads to skin maceration, irritation, or infection.
These idols are then painted with ‘some’ dyes which contain poisonous elements like lead,mercury,carbon and cadmium.
In Hyderabad alone every year over 30,000 Ganpati idols are immersed at about 20 different places during Ganesh Chaturthi resulting in huge amount of pollution. This polluted water is a threat not only to water creatures, but to us equally.
TV9 is launching a GREEN CAMPAIGN to promote usage of clay and paper Ganesh idols during this festival. Join the campaign and make our environment green and clean.
The Invinsible Regional News Channel!
My contributory piece for impact Weekly’s 6th Anniversary issue.
Impact Weekly’s 6th Anniversary issue, released recently, featured industry professionals’ 6/6 Vision for the Media. Here is the unedited version of my contribution, put together at a rather short notice.
How come yours is India’s No.1 news network?
I come across this question often. I tell them that I hail not from any metropolis but from rural India. Indians, who understand the diversity of the land, would not consider the country as a single nation. Diverse languages and cultures make the sub-continent an interesting place of co-existence. Our natural resources and rivers are divided between various regions and provinces and the people living in these regions speak different languages. For example, entire India knows legendary martyrs like Bhagat Singh and Rajguru. But very few people in the North know about scores of patriots like Velu Thambi or Chidambaram Pillai or Alluri Sitaramaraju who also fought valiantly for the country and laid down their lives. Some of my friends in the North are not aware that films are made in Gujarati. Similarly, a number of my South Indian friends do not know anything about Bengali films. We live in the same country but know little about the neighboring State.
Some of the media experts abroad told me that they were astonished at the way the cable operators in India provide universal entertainment for $3 per month. In my town, slum dwellers pay only $1 per month to get 80 channels. Indian issues are different and Indian solutions are different. We cannot replicate Western paradigms or autocratic top-down models of functioning here.
In the national news channels there are several key personalities who do not know that Bangalore and Hyderabad are two different cities.(Till yesterday, all Telugus were called Madarasis whereas “Madarasis” are from Tamilnadu). National players are not tired of showing the architectural excellence of Parliament House, Supreme Court of India, Election Commission building etc.
When I was about to start the first venture in Telugu six years ago, several eye brows were raised and the common query was: Can the market support a news channel in the regional language? But I had not relented. Today, following TV9′s success, there are twelve news channels in Telugu alone! All these channels are making revenues and none wants to close the channel.
Now-a-days, Hindi entertainment channels have also started exploring regional India. But the main problem is with its leadership which sits in Delhi or Mumbai with scant knowledge about the regional life.
The State of Andhra Pradesh, for example, has more population than Canada and Australia put together. It has more population than UK or Spain or France. Its population is equal to that of a unified Germany. People sitting in Delhi may think that the architectural beauty of Delhi or the Bollywood gossip sell across India. They are wrong. To give another example, when I said “No astrology on our network”, the media pundits have predicted a sharp decline in our viewership. But we proved them wrong. They were under the mistaken view that the cultural levels of different regions are the same along with beliefs,superstitions and backwardness. I think the media managers are obsessed with their own subjective faith in astrology whereas viewers are not affected with the removal of the slot on astrology in our network.
In the States where TV9 or regional channels started playing news game, the myth of the invincibility of big national channels has been shattered and the regional channels have always been on the top. Many-a-time, TV9 channels have beaten the national channels in viewership. When I am talking about news, I mean serious news and news-based programmes that can bring about a positive change in the society which helps strengthening the democratic processes in a particular region. Most of the channels have developed a philosophy that hard news doesn’t sell. But the people who advocate against hard news have never tried seriously to practice journalism. I am still searching for a Delhi-based national news channel which could at least expose the corruption of the Delhi State Govt. and thus play a role to bring considerable change in the system there. I am still searching for a serious national channel which could expose the unscrupulous builders of Mumbai whose will is law in our financial capital. They flout all regulations and increase the number of floors as they wish and they even corrupt journalists. I am still on the look-out for a channel which exposes the shady deals of our permeative Stock Market where thousands of crores of rupees of our citizens are swindled (The alarming development today is that the same system of speculation is sought to be extended to the rural areas whereby there would be a multitude of rural stock brokers in India in future harming the rural economy and harmonious human relations in the villages. Any villager with Rs.10 lakhs can become a stock broker and cheat the innocent).
When did we practice real journalism? Craving for sound bytes from politicians and filling the bulletins with the inter-party and intra-party wranglings, we never work for the people of the country and help them fight for solutions to the problems they face in their daily life. Our experience is that, whenever we tried to practice genuine, serious journalism, we have been able to beat all the rival channels. What’s more, without a presence in Delhi, we are No.1 news network in India. I think the future game will be by the regional media in the regional languages with a regional outlook. There is tremendous space in the regional arena which was hitherto ignored by the media pundits. Decentralization is democracy. The regional media is strengthening the democratic processes in the country. One has to understand India first and Indian diversity first to play a media game here. If you don’t believe in this, look at the shift in the patterns of the top entertainment players who have switched over to catering to the tastes of the regional viewership.
Army to Chattisgarh?!
The Govt seem to be serious to deploy armed forces to contain Naxals in Chattisgarh. After Gen. Choudhury’s military action against the communists in Telangana during 1949-50 where hundreds of peasants also died, this would be another such, perhaps more fierce, offensive by the Indian army on Indian citizens. Unfortunately, barring some Naxal cadres, a majority of the would-be victims in the proposed mission will certainly be innocent adivasis.
So far the Govt. have seen the issue as a law and order problem and now they want a military solution to this. The basic question is: If all is well with life in the adivasi villages, where is the place for Naxals? If a majority of the adivasis experience normal living conditions and if they genuinely feel that the Govt. is for them, no Naxal can enter into the tribal areas. Why don’t we realise that the adivasis in general are living in sub-human conditions despite our claims about welfare schemes? Those who innocently think that some good is being done to the tribals should themselves live at least for one day with them, eat what they eat, drink what they drink and sleep in those dwellings. It would be next to impossible for them to stay for more than 2 days amidst the tribals in the appalling conditions of poverty and insanitary surroundings.
Instead of improving their lot, the Govt. has been trying divisive tactics and pumping a lot of money for the notorious organisation Salwa Judum. As a result, a majority of the tribals lost their faith in the authorities. The Govt. failed to realise that their patronage to Salwa Judum would prove counter-productive.
For the past several months, thousands of adivasi families are fleeing Chattisgarh and entering into neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Their plight is miserable. If army enters Chattisgarh, innocent tribals would be killed and there will be mass exodus and the tribals will face untold hardship in alien lands.
Instead of waging a war on the people, the Govt. should hold negotiations with the Naxals immediately and thus pave way for effective implementation of special welfare measures aimed at providing proper food, clothing, housing, health and education in the tribal areas. The Govt. should come clean to prove that the well being of its people – but not the business interests of the multi-nationals – is of paramount importance to them. If the patriotic intellectuals of this country and the fourth estate do not counsel the Govt. at this crucial stage against the proposed State adventurism, they are failing in their duty. Let us hope that good sense would prevail and the Govt. give up the idea of onslaught. Such a wrong move would bring ignominy to the powers-that-be. After all, whom we want to conquer and which bastion we want to capture?
