A leap or a slide?
Sadya Afreen Mallick
How BTV has changed! When it was launched sometime around middle of 1964 (under the name of Pakistan Television Corporation), people would excitedly flock in front of the TV sets, waiting expectantly, and all this time, watching a blank screen with the words PTC on the screen. The title music “Apache” by the Beatles was a household tune.
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, 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 the puppets and directing plays from Shakespeare to Tagore. Mustafa Kamal Syed, Abdullah Al Mamun, Atiqul Huque Chowdhury, Nawazish Ali Khan and Mustafizur Rahman were the driving force behind the magazine programmes and the TV plays. Sakina Sarwar, Musa Ahmed, Kazi Abu Zafar, Qamrunnessa Hasan and others supervised the musicals.
But there were also famous personalities such as the former Chief Justice Mustafa Kamal and Professor Abdul Matin conducting the quiz programme “Bolun Dekhi”, Professor Badruddoza Chowdhury hosting “Apnaar Daktar”, Professor 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 an 24/7 international dimension by launching the satellite channel BTV World.
Now that we are open to the world, perhaps it’s a good time to evaluate the standards we are telecasting to our international audience.
It’s 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 the entertainment shows, but also for documentaries 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 where’s 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 the yesteryears are no more. Accompanists are mostly untrained and have very little incentive to develop their skills further. Pay cheques don’t compare well with 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-synch while the troupe of accompanists listlessly strum their instruments for show. Even the stage decorations are re-used innumerably. So it’s down to the make-up crew and the cameraman to make a good show of it all.
Even with the declining audience, BTV has the largest volume of viewers simply because of its network – viewers not less than 10 crores in the country alone, with registered 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, 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 in contractual service and made 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 sponsor’s attention to fund these programmes. BTV can then be more of a telecaster, and outsource all original content production.
The 44th anniversary of BTV, seems to be a jarring reminder that the role of BTV needs to be re-evaluated. From its inception, BTV has been the birthplace of talent from all fields of entertainment from the charismatic newscasters to actors, dramatists, singers, dancers, sports personality to the charming announcers. Innovation, skill and sincerity were the buzzwords. At the threshold of mid-life crisis, now seems a good time as any to see how that era can be revived.
Courtesy: thedailystar.net
