The latest launch to hit the Star Plus' screen is Hatim. Based on Persian children's classic Hatim Tai, the fantasy show is being brought to life by the Sagar Arts' complete with adventure, feats, science and lots of bravery and valour. Created by the newest entrants from the Sagar stable Amrit Sagar and Shakti Sagar, the show has combine the art of story telling with lot of technical finesse.
Joining the duo is yet another member from the generation next of Sagar family- Jyoti Sagar. He is responsible for generating the computer graphics, an integral element of the special effects for the programme.
Actor Raahil will play central character Hatim, while the main villain Jaal is being portrayed by Nirmal Pandey and the bigger villain, who operates behind the scenes villain Najumi is being essayed by Vijay Ganju. Jasmine is the female lead in the show.
indiantelevision.com's Vickey Lalwani met Amrit Sagar in Sagar's 'Natraj Studio' at Andheri. Excerpts from the interview:
Since the Ramayana days, how much has the company evolved? Where do you plan to go from here? With the young generation- Shakti, Jyoti and I- now joining in, we are focusing a lot on technology. Our latest show 'Hatim' is technologically quite advanced than all the previous shows from Sagars. We youngsters have studied filmmaking abroad, observed a lot. We aspire to bring in fresh and different stories. We are determined to change the face of Indian television. |
|||
What is the improvement in technology? |
|||
You said that you guys have fresh and different stories. Isn't 'Hatim' an old Persian tale? What new are the kids going to see? |
|||
|
|||
True. But 'Ramayana' was a mythological tale. With Indian's being seen as spiritual wasn't it bound to click? While Alif Laila was taken off air by DD is a different story, but fact of the matter is that it was no1 on DD. Even when DD decided to withdraw it, it still enjoyed the top slot. Today, the same show is in its forth rerun on Sab TV. Why DD refused to give us one more extension for Alif Laila, is beyond my understanding. |
|||
Is that the reason why Sagars looking at satellite channels? First you had 'Arzoo Hai Tu', now 'Hatim'... DD needs to get a corporate structure in place. The pubcaster can do better than any satellite channel because of its phenomenal reach. There is a huge market but sadly they are not willing to exploit. |
|||
You seem to have a lot of complains. Care to elaborate? Take another one. If a producer has a few seconds of advertising left in one of the shows in the morning/afternoon slot, he would appreciate if those few seconds are carried forward in the show in the prime slot. But DD is not willing to listen. The fact is that it is a Herculean task to rope in advertisers in the non-prime slots. Advertisers shy away in the non-prime slots of their channel. And where are the big promotional campaigns which are vital to create a buzz? Where are the publicity gimmicks which are necessary to sustain the popularity of a show? Look at the manner in which the satellite channels handle these departments. Content is important, but so is the packaging, especially in today's times. |
|||
How has the experience with Star Plus been? Especially since Star Plus is known to interfere... If Star Plus is not happy with a particular costume or a backdrop, we need to see it from their perspective. |
|||
Deepak Sehgal (senior vice president, content and programming) remarked at the 'Hatim' launch that he was not very confident of the Sagars pulling this one off... |
|||
There is a buzz that you were asked to make quite a few changes to the 'Hatim', after you showed them the pilot. Thereafter, Shakti and I sat with a team of illustrators who started making each and every character in absolute detail. Take for instance Hatim, his look, his costumes, his sword, his bow and arrow, his powers and took all the sketches to Sehgal. Though Tarun Katial was the senior vice president, we always did our dealings with Sehgal on the creative aspects. After that, Star Plus and Sagars started working hand in glove. |
|||
Other than Vijay Ganju and Nirmal Pandey for the negative portrayals in 'Hatim', did you have anybody else in mind? |
|||
Did you work in your studios? We have about 150 people working there. Gujarat has lots of talented artistes in the field of art and craft. Then, there's one in Mumbai- Natraj Studio wherein we have four more partners- F C Mehra, Shakti Samanta, Pramod Chakravarty and (late) Atmaram (now his family). Natraj Studio is rented out for shootings and recordings. |
|||
|
|||
You have a show on Sahara- 'Arzoo Hai Tu'. How was your experience with Sahara? Nobody can discount the role played by KBC and Kyunki... in Star Plus' success. KBC lifted it to the top, Kyunki... is helping it stay there. Karishma- The Miracles Of Destiny might have done well on Sahara, had it not got into controversy and suffered a delay in telecast. |
|||
After 'Arzoo Hai Tu', we thought that you would make a soap or a sitcom. Why haven't you? |
|||
Are you satisfied with the TRPs of 'Arzoo Hai Tu'? Star Plus is a different story, most shows start off with TRP 4 on that channel. The fate of a programme is governed by the channel it is telecast on. |
|||
Why did Sagars stop making films at one point of time? Shakti and I- both plan to start our own film in 2004. We are writing our own scripts individually, but yes, we do share the progress of our story at regular intervals. Writing has been a bit slow in recent times, since Hatim is taking a lot of our time these days. |
|||
What are the young Sagar debut films going to be like? Only after the characters are build will we zero down on the probable of the star cast. |
|||
Has there been an instance of difference of opinions between the elder Sagars and the younger Sagars? Sometimes. But we sit together and reach a common conclusion. Sometimes it takes time, but that's a part of the game. |
|||
So what next for Sagar's on television arena? |
|||
Will you be working with DD in future? What is the budget on 'Hatim'? |