Mixing the right formula

 

Cinevista Communications' been there, done that. But Sanjivani is a big one for the production house.

Now a public company, the company has been in the TV software business from the days of good ole DD. Kathasagar and Gul Gulshan Gulfam were offbeat shows that stood out on the staid pubcasters' programming front. Junoon on satellite TV ran a marathon five years, setting a record as the longest running soap. There have been also-rans too -Jai Mata Ki, Nehle Pe Dehla, Saboot - the production house has tried its hand at nearly all genres.

But Sanjivani, the baby of Siddharth Malhotra, son of co founder Prem Kishen, is the biggest of them all. In scale, budget and effort, it surpasses all previous ventures, he claims. The young creative director who came up with the idea of creating a hospital series, has spent the last year researching the project.

He bristles at comparisons with Chicago Hope; and grows modest when references to the classic Lifeline on DD are made. "Chicago Hope is packed with technical terms and medical jargon; Sanjivani is more human," he summarises. "Lifeline was a classic in its own right, but that was 13 years ago, on Doordarshan. A generation has grown up since, which has not seen a hospital series on Indian TV at all," he points out.

Cinevista creative director Siddharth Malhotra

Boasting a lineage that has medical practitioners as well as actors behind him inspired Siddharth to do Sanjivani. That it would have to different spurred him to invest a year in researching cases, hospital sets, talking to doctors and hunting among fresh-faced acquaintances who would do justice to the roles of the four doctors. "It was high time some fresh faces were seen on Indian TV," he says.

Talking Star into buying Sanjivani was not too much of a task, he says. The concept was less trodden territory and he was bringing in a proven name in the form of director Kaushik Ghatak, who had Kyunkii… and Shh…Koi hai as feathers in his cap. Screenplay by Vipul Mehta who has written Kyunkii… and camerawork by Hari Nair, a known cinematographer ensured that the team would deliver.

But Siddharth does not believe in leaving it to his hand-picked team. Even as the results of his efforts get filmed onto hi-tech digital cameras, he is not taking it easy. Each shot that needs medical verification finds him scurrying to his doctor friends for advice. His stress on authenticity has ensured that the equipment on the sets - from the X ray machine to the disposable syringe, is for real. "In fact, should anyone take ill, we are all set to tackle the situation in our 'hospital'," he jokes.

It's no period masterpiece, but the painstaking detail and innovative set design have escalated each episode's costs to well over Rs 1 million, almost double that of usual weekly soaps. Big names like Mohnish Behl and Kulbhushan Kharbanda have stretched the budget, but Siddharth's not complaining. "I may not get enough financial returns from this one," he says, "but Sanjivani is going to set us apart as trendsetters."


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