https://bestmediainfo.com/2019/09/the-good-old-days-of-doordarshan/
The good old days of Doordarshan!
The good old days of Doordarshan!
A nostalgic look at the days when TV was synonymous with the national
broadcaster and when good content ruled the air waves
Kakoli Thakur | Delhi | September 18, 2019
Last Sunday, good old Doordarshan turned 60. When I came across this
news, I became nostalgic and went down memory lane. I recalled how important DD
was to us back then in the ’80s when there was no DTH or cable or OTT players
or Internet. Filled with nostalgia, I could not stop myself from writing this
small piece as a tribute and celebrate 60 years of our national channel.
Doordarshan, which began as an experiment on September 15, 1959, and
became a service in 1965, turned 60 on September 15, 2019.
Those were the days of no cable and DD was the only channel as a mode of
entertainment.
I remember, during the early DD days, we didn’t even have a television
and only one or two houses in our neighbourhood had the luxury of buying a TV
set. We as children were allowed to visit our neighbours only on weekends to
watch our favourite programmes. Before that, television was only part of our
social study books.
Gradually, more and more houses started making television a part of
their drawing rooms, a thing to show off in those days. But I am only talking
about black and white television. Having a colour TV set was a super luxury and
only a few could afford it. Samosa and mithai treat was given to
neighbours to announce the good news of a TV set — as if a newborn had arrived
in the house. That was a time when television united families in their drawing
rooms.
In the initial days, at 5 pm, a striped screen appeared as one would
switch on the set and patiently wait for the channel to go live. It was not a
24-hour channel then and broadcast was limited to the evening hours. Slowly, the
famous DD tune would play along as the logo rotated from a hazy background and
appeared on screen as people cheered and clapped. We often used to hum along the
soothing music.
Over time, the broadcast timings got extended to morning and afternoon
hours and years later, Doordarshan got a sibling in DD Metro.
Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan was a craze those days. On Sunday
mornings, when the show aired, the roads had a deserted look. People followed
it religiously and the elderly people even showed agarbatti and diya
to the television when the title song played every Sunday. People wanted to
touch the feet of Arun Govil and Deepika Chikhalia, who played Ram and Sita,
whenever they were seen in public.
BR Chopra’s Mahabharat was another popular show those days. We all
came to know about the story and characters of the epic better through the
show.
The daily evening Samachar was a must watch for all as it was
time to get information about city, state, country and the world. The news and
anchors both were simple and sober unlike today when noise rules. Those were
the days when anchors Salma Sultan, Geetanjali Aiyer, Komal.G.B.Singh, Neethi
Ravindran, Rini Simon Khanna, Sarla Maheshwari, Minu and Shammi Narang were
household names.
Chitrahaar was another popular programme on DD National,
featuring song clips from Bollywood films. It was aired twice a week and I
remember we studied extra hours so that we were allowed to have a glimpse of the
Bollywood world.
We eagerly waited for Sunday evenings as a movie was aired every week. No one cared if it
was an old movie or a recent one; we watched them all. Sometimes electricity
played the spoilsport but we as children took that opportunity to play outside
and the moment power came back, we shouted in chorus, and sometimes got scolded
for that, but those were fun days.
Other popular shows were Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Rajni, Karamchand, Dekh
Bhai Dekh, Malgudi Days, Surabhi and the list is endless. Who can forget
the first daily soap operas Hum Log and Buniyaad? And Bharat
Ek Khoj, the 53-episode Indian historical drama based on the book The
Discovery of India (1946) by Jawaharlal Nehru? And, of course, the evergreen
Duck Tales, Tom and Jerry and Mowgli!
Programmes such as Krishi Darshan were boring for us as kids but
for adults, it was information and we could not even giggle about it.
Today’s ‘the’ Shah Rukh Khan became a household name with the serial Fauji
and we as teenagers blushed watching him on television and it was a topic of
hot discussion in school.
Then came the turn of the mega dramas such as Shanti and Swabhiman
that had real good content, unlike today’s daily soaps that are stretched
beyond imagination.
Today, there is no dearth of 24-hour channels but none can match the
charm of DD days and only people of that generation can relate to it.
