BTV Reaches 50 In the shadows of its own glory days Time for a shake-up? Sadya Afreen Mallick Many are the ways in which BTV has changed. Once, it was inaugurated sometime around the middle of 1964 (under the name of PTC or Pakistan Television Corporation), people would excitedly gather in front of the TV sets and wait expectantly. All this time, they would watch a blank screen with the words PTC on the screen. Those were times when Bangladesh was the eastern province of Pakistan and the country was under the rule of Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan. The title music Apache by the Beatles was a household tune. It all seems so long ago and yet so much part of our times. From December 25, 1964, the national TV started to telecast different programmes for the first time. The TV centre was then situated at the DIT building at Motijheel in Dhaka. With a one-room studio and limited technical hands, the station presented countless programmes, mainly on local culture. Ten years later, on January 9, 1975 -- four years after the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation -- the station was finally shifted to Rampura to modernise the facilities and broadcast technically developed programmes. By 1980, the black and white programmes were replaced by colour. Surprisingly the big name producers -- the heart and soul of the variety of programmes --were not always career artistes. There was of course, the ever-innovative Mustafa Monwar, famous for his artistic touch with puppets and directing plays from Shakespeare to Tagore. Khaleda Fahmi, Mustafa Kamal Syed, Abdullah Al Mamun, Atiqul Haque Chowdhury, Nawazish Ali Khan, Mustafizur Rahman and Barkatulla were the driving force behind the magazine programmes and the TV plays. Musa Ahmed, Kazi AZ Siddiqui, Badrunnessa Abdullah, Quamnessa Hassan and others supervised the musicals. But there were also famous personalities such as the former Chief Justice Mustafa Kamal and Prof Abdul Matin conducting the quiz programme “Bolun Dekhi”, Prof Badruddoza Chowdhury, later Bangladeshs President, hosting “Apnar Daktar”, Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed anchoring “Shoptoborna” and the popular musical “Bornali” and Fazley Lohani in “Jodi Kichu Money Na Koren”, to name a few. From April 2004, BTV branched off into the 24/7 international dimension by launching the satellite channel BTV World. Now that we are open to the world, perhaps its as good a time as any to evaluate the standards we are telecasting to our international audience. Its no secret that the BTV audience has progressively been moving away. And it is not because of the lure of satellite TV. The top private channels enjoy massive popularity, not only for their entertainment shows, but also for their innovative and news programmes. BTV is in the unenviable position of playing catch-up with programme formats, content and style. A closer look would probably reveal that the pioneers behind BTV are probably still at work at the private channels. So wheres the bottleneck? Critics complain that there is a dearth of quality performers and musicians. Many eminent musicians who were the heart and soul of the immortal songs of yesteryears are no more. Accompanists are mostly untrained and have very little incentive to develop their skills further. Paychecks dont compare well with those of the private channels or giving private lessons. Technical development has come to a standstill. Many of the musical programmes are supposedly taped in private studios or for those who can afford it, in overseas studios. Some point out that the whole set up for programmes has become like another puppet show, artistes arriving on stage only for lip-sync while the troupe of accompanists listlessly strum their instruments for mere show. Even the stage decorations are re-used innumerably. So its down to the make-up crew and the cameraman to make a good show of it all. Even with a declining audience, BTV has the largest volume of viewers simply because of its network -- viewers no fewer than 10 crores in the country alone, with enlisted artistes of more than 10,000. Surely advertisement revenues alone could be a major source of funding for the renovations? And with all the infrastructure in place, the directors of yesteryears could develop a meaningful training institute for the new generation? The directors who are still able to contribute should be brought into contractual service to train the newcomers. Another radical approach could be that BTV cuts its investment in any new developments, and becomes a net purchaser of privately packaged programmes only. With its nationwide and now international audience, that would certainly get the sponsors attention to fund these programmes. BTV can then be more of a telecaster, and outsource all original content production. The 50th anniversary of BTV, to be observed today, seems to be a jarring reminder that the role of BTV needs to be re-evaluated. It remains a major medium and yet the last competitive exam it organised was held in the year 1977. In the subsequent 37 years, recruitment was made on the basis of auto promotion, cronyism and -- tadbir. From its inception, BTV has been the birthplace of talent from all fields of entertainment from charismatic newscasters to actors, dramatists, singers, dancers, sports personalities to charming announcers. Innovation, skill and sincerity were the buzzwords. At the threshold of its mid-life crisis today, now seems as good time as any to reflect on how that era can be revived at BTV. It needs to and can, given the will, reinvent itself. Published: 12:00 am Thursday, December 25, 2014 TAGS: BTV Golden Jubilee thedailystar.net/in-the-shadows-of-its-own-glory-days-56945
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 14:19:36 +0000
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