NEW DELHI: Several producers who have made some memorable series for Doordarshan have promised to return if certain changes are made in the pattern of the financial agreements with them.

This assurance was given by the producers to Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of State (MOS) Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and secretary Bimal Julka at a meeting initiated by Doordarshan director general Vijaylaxmi Chhabra. Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar and senior advisor Brig VAM Hussain were also present.

The Minister said that the pubcaster wanted to revive the trust of the producers in DD and come back, and this was generally welcomed by those present.

Hats Off Productions owner JD Majethia and also co-chairman of Association Of Motion Pictures & Television Programme Producers (AMPTPP) says, “The agenda of the meeting was that in the last 10-12 years with the birth of new general entertainment channels (GECs), DD had somewhere lost its glory. Now, DD wants to revive and expand its content portfolio with the help of top-line producers like us and bring back the long lost glory on DD.”

The producers said that the revenue sharing model of DD was not acceptable to them as the marketing was handled by the broadcaster. Issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights were also raised since it was said that DD reserved the copyright of the works of the producers and they wanted an examination of this.

On behalf of DD, they were assured that the pubcaster would examine the schemes under which serials are obtained since it has already stopped commissioning of programmes.

It is learnt that consequent to the meeting, DD has re-drafted the guidelines relating to the self-financing scheme and will await the remarks of the producers before giving it a final shape.

The meeting was attended by producers namely - BP Singh (Fireworks Productions), Sunjoy Wadhwa (Sphereorigins chairman and managing director), Abhimanyu Singh (Contiloe Entertainment) and others. It is also learnt that Chhabra visited Mumbai to meet some producers in this connection.