Hum Log saga of Indian soap opera

Chapter 7

Circa 1985. State owned TV network of India was launched in 1959 to educate school children. But it hadn't worked. Come 1985. The then information and broadcasting secretary S.S.Gill after a trip to Mexico returned with the idea of soap opera. It was a name given to TV serials sponsored by soap manufacturing companies in the west. Miguel Sabido had conceived a highly popular serial called Simplemente Maria ( An ordinary girl Maria). It was based on how a poor woman was given a sewing machine by the Singer company and she became a symbol of women empowerment. Singer machine started selling like hot cakes.

Gill roped in the famous journalist and author Manohar Shyam Joshi with a brief to create an Indian soap opera. He etched typical lower middle class family of Basheshar Ram, played by the noted Delhi stage actor and singer Vinod Nagpaul. His screen family consisted of Dadi, Dadaji, wife Bhagvanti ( played by Joyshree Arora), elder daughter Badki ( Seema Bhargava), middle one Majhli ( dadi's own daughter), and the youngest Chhutki. The son Nanhe played by Abhinav Chaturvedi spoon became a role model for the ambitious Indian youth. It was sponsored by the renowned drug company Proctor and Gamble, thrice a week at the prime time slot of 8.30 p.m. on the national hook up of Doordarshan. Ironically enough in black and white.  

It was a runaway success and ran for a year and a half.

It caught the imagination of the Indian middle class like jungle fire. The traffic stopped. The shutters were brought down by the shopkeepers and the housewives changed the cooking schedule to sit down in front of the idiot box.  

Our hero BB was hand-picked up by Joshi to be a script coordinator. He was working for Caravan as its senior editor for a monthly salary of Rs 750/- Hum Log started paying him Rs 400 per episode, thrice a week. He found this new assignment exciting and thrilling. But when the owner-editor came to know about him, he sacked him for moonlighting. He didn't mind. He had entered the big league. The grapevine mill of Delhi society started talking about him.

BB would meet Joshi every morning who lived next door to Press Enclave, in A 53 DDA flats of Saket to discuss the script which was to be rehearsed at Himachal Bhawan space in Mandi House complex with the actors. His main job was to correct their diction, make changes if any actor found a particular word difficult or incomprehesive. He had a colleague Sodhi who was supposed to assist the director Vasudev while shooting at Dhirendra Brahamchari Aparna Studios in Gurgaon. BB was not supposed to go there. The station director of DD was also included lest he creates any trouble. He was handsomely rewarded. Joshi got Rs 3000 per script. A good money in his post-retirement days after being the editor of Saptahik Hindustan from where he was eased out because one of his sub-editors had unwittingly written in one article that India was a great democratic country could have a president ( Zail Singh)who couldn't read or write his name in Hindi or English. The Sikh priest-turned president got wild and complained to the HT owner K.K.Birla when he paid a courtesy call. Joshi was shown the door. But Hum Log Changed it all.

Hul Log rehearsal was a great fun. So were the flood of letters that came in hordes every day to Doordarshan. BB was asked to read and take notes as what were listeners thinking. Whether to drop the police inspector Samdar or to increase the role of Doctor Ashwini Kumar ( a real doctor in real life as well), the man who had a glad eye for Badki on the screen. Joshi left his audience guessing whther doctor would marry Badi. Interestingly, there was no love lost in real life as Seema Bhargava was no match for the suave doctor.

The secret of Hum Log success was its total identification with the audience. They were in love with each one of them. BB's younger brother got married when this serial was still on the air. He invited the entire caste to the wedding at Taj Palace. The wedding got topsy turvy as all the guests forgot the bride and bridegroom and hooked on to Hum Log stars. BB was at the center of attraction.

The media also lapped up Hum Log. It wrote reams of papers and it led to an unending stream of serials. The top of the chart slots were grabbed by Mahabharat of B.R.Chopra and Ramayan of Ramanand Sagar. But BB also had a finger in this pie by producing his own 13-part serial Purvaee  (wind from the east). Before this he was commissioned by Veenk Khanna to assist in Basanti based on Bhisham sahni. All thius changed BB's life for good.