Weekend Exclusive | New concepts taking over the reins from saas-bahu shows

Adgully, caught up with Raakesh Paswan, producer and writer by profession, who shared his experience as a producer and gave us insights about his present show (as a producer) Afsar Bitiya.

We asked Paswan, to share his experience of the transformation from being a writer to a producer. He said, "Even when I was a writer, I used to always think of starting my own company and becoming a producer. At the age of 16, I wrote my first play and since then, I was involved with theatre. During that phase I wrote 10-12 plays. Later, I joined a radio station and wrote plays for them as well. After that I came to Mumbai and wrote sporadically but for the last 5 years, I have been writing regularly and professionally. As a writer, I have established my contacts in the industry and the broadcasters also trust me. I guess these are very important credentials to become a producer."

On whether being a writer or a producer, which role he prefers more, Paswan replied, "Both have their own special attributes. Since I play both the roles, I can't differentiate. Whenever I produce a new show, I conceive and develop the concept and also write down the initial episodes to give it the correct shape. As a writer when I write, my job is done. But now that I am a producer, my job does not end there. I have to ensure that it is depicted properly on screen. It may sound surprising, but because I play both the roles, once for my regional show I re-shot scenes because I did not feel it was depicted correctly. My team is always very scared of me that I am capable of taking such steps such in the future too. Both roles have creative aspects and I am happy to enact both."

About his previous show as a producer Baba Aiso Var Dhundho, Paswan explained the idea behind such a concept. He said, "I went to a wedding in Jamshedpur, where I saw this 35-year-old lady who was a midget. I was watching her for quite some time and then I saw few of her relatives all of whom were in the 7-8 year age bracket. They had the same height as her. When this lady asked them not to play in the mud, they turned around and pushed her. She reacted very strongly to this. Witnessing that incident made me realize how someone's height can decide someone's strength and personality. That was the time I have conceived the idea of Baba and then later on, I gave my own style to make it apt for the daily soap format."

He also explained the concept behind the show AfsarBitiya. He said, "My own sister, Payel, is a BDO officer in Jharkhand. I have seen her hard work and her willingness to achieve this status. I always encouraged her to pursue education. I also sent her to Delhi to get special tuitions for this. When she got selected for the BDO exams and cleared all the stages, our whole family atmosphere changed. I saw the immense joy and pride in my parents eyes. Then I thought this can be a nice subject for the television viewers, where I can play a key role to inspire people to pursue education.

We asked Paswan, what kind of concept works today in GEC, "I feel there is no certain formula on television which works. I can tell you about my forte for sure. I always have been showcasing socially relevant subjects because I feel audience can relate to that. But I always maintained that it has to be entertaining otherwise viewers will get bored after a few episodes. Hard hitting subjects with the entertainment quotient will do wonders for small screen. When I conceived shows like Bhagyavidhata, Shraddha and Baba Aisom, people were discussing how this subject will work for the audience, but I wrote it in such a way that people can enjoy the stories. It should not be preachy. One should not forget that, television is a medium of entertainment."

According to Raakesh Paswan, to make a story successful in a daily soap format concept, back drop is very important. And, in a 30 minutes capsule we have to make sure the audience stays tuned. Nowadays, certain channels are touching upon some offbeat subjects, do you think it's a gamble to launch a show and then keep a watch if it works? "Not a gamble. As a producer when I see shows like ShubhVivah, PunarVivah, KyaHuaTeraVaada, I feel happy. We have seen that even in music industry many changes have happened, so why not in this industry. An audience should taste all kind of flavours," commented, Paswan.

About where the GEC space heading today, he said, "I can't answer this properly only a channel head will be able to give you a proper picture. But content wise if you ask me then I can say writers and creators of the shows should get more creative freedom."

"For people who think and complained that Raakesh only writes rural-based shows, will stop complaining now. I, now am writing a story on Mumbai," concluded, Paswan.

In the past, Raakesh Pawan, has written atleast twelve shows and the most popular ones include Dulhaan, Mamta, Ek Ladki Anjaani Si, Thodi Khushi Thode Gham,Jahan Pe Basera Ho, Meri Awaz Ko Mil Gayi Roshni and Hamari Devrani which became the turning point. He grew up in Jharkhand and later came to Mumbai and assisted directors in various production houses. He got an opportunity to write episodes for few shows and realised that this is something he always wanted to do.