After
family relationships, it's the next best thing to tug at your
heartstrings. A hospital series may not be new to Indian television;
Lifeline on DD is still fresh in viewer memory after 13
years.
The battle in the genre is now on between Star Plusand
Sony - Star's Sanjivani has stolen a march over Sony's
Dhadkan with an earlier launch. But the channel that claims
to be running a close second is not overly perturbed. Dhadkan,
that premiered two weeks ago, is more about plumbing the depths
of patients' lives rather than tracing the foibles of young doctors,
is the producers' refrain. Positioned just before the hugely popular
Kkusum three days of the week, Dhadkan is aimed
at the discerning viewer, a tribe largely neglected on television,
claims producer Jeetu Chawla.
indiantelevision.com correspondent Amar visits the
Dhadkan sets to find out whether the new hospital series
is just another soap with the perfunctory social message bunged
in or if the show can inject new life in Sony's prime time band…
Umesh
Padalkar, director
He has already created a niche for himself with Kagaar.
Armed with a degree from the US, Padalkar started out as production
controller in Vinay Dhumale's unit, progressed to making ad films
before venturing into directing serials. The young director is
surprisingly calm when it comes to the ticklish issue of TRPs.
Oozing the confidence of a person driven by passion and knowledge
that he has given his best, he prefers to let his work talk for
him.
On
how Dhadkan was conceptualized
We (the team) keep discussing ideas and one day we just happened
to discuss if a serial can be built around hospital life. The
idea appealed to all of us as we felt that a hospital is one place
where every patient has a story to tell. The only other place
where everybody has a story to tell is probably the court. But
unlike in a court, where people come and go, hospital life also
creates some bonding between the doctors and the patients which
results from the patients staying under the same roof under some
very trying conditions. It is this bonding and the joys and sorrows
associated with it that can really stand out from the point of
story telling.
On whether Sanjivani has
stolen a first mover advantage over Dhadkan
I don't think so. I haven't seen Sanjivani but I have faith
in our work. Besides, there is every possibility that the audience
might take to both of them. After all there is a huge difference
between the viewership patterns of a weekly and a daily.
On
the focus of the show
Thorough research is indispensable in a project like this. But
we are not focusing so much on the diseases, which serves merely
as a backdrop. It's the human story built around it that counts.
For instance, in the first episode the story focused on a young
boy suffering from cerebral malaria, who has been brought from
a village in Rajasthan for treatment. The thrust of the story
was on the way this young boy's illiterate parents react to the
situation, the level of faith they show in the medical system
and their interactions with the doctors. A hospital scenario brings
its own set of varied emotions, which no programme so far has
been able to tap effectively. This is the thrust of this show.
On why the producer-director duo
of Jeetu Chawla and Umesh Padalkar takes up only one project at
a time
It is difficult to survive on just a project at a time, but that
is what sets us apart. We have just done two projects - Kagaar
and Dhadkan and both have been qualitatively at par with
the very best. Of course, it would have been an easier option
to follow the trend and to churn out the oft-repeated concepts.
But at the end of the day, there is a lot greater pride in doing
something out of sheer conviction and making it succeed.
The Dhadkan set
It is the meticulous planning that has gone into the sets, costing
nearly seven million rupees that catches one's attention instantly.
The lavish set created out of an abandoned warehouse
is
now virtually home to the team of Dhadkan that seems to
approach the shoot as one would attend a family outing.
Says
Padalkar, "Most modern hospitals have a separate floor given to
each department and that is what we have tried to portray in the
serial. Actually, this place used to be a godown some eight months
back. But a project of this huge magnitude required a regular
shooting set-up instead of shifting
locations every now and then."
The amount invested in the set will be amortized over a period
of 156 episodes. The set design took about two and half months
and another two and half months for the construction. Padalkar
admits that the longevity of the show depends on the TRPs it gets.
The shooting schedule encompasses six episodes within ten days.
The set gets re-worked overnight in about four to six hours.
The Dhadkan script
Dhadkan has three different writers. Each writer writes
six episodes and takes a break and takes over again after the
other two writers have written their six episodes. The idea, say
the producers, is to give the writers time to ponder and come
back afresh. All the writers check on preceding episodes to ensure
continuity in the script.
Charudatt Acharya, writer
Writing for Dhadkan is a very different experience. I have
to be careful in weaving in the emotional drama with the factual
authenticity. I first prepare a draft screenplay and send it across
to our in-house research team. The team incorporates the medical
facts relevant at different stages of the disease, after consulting
our panel of doctors. On the basis of these inputs, I prepare
a comprehensive screenplay and send it again to our research team
which gets it validated by the panel.
For the first time probably, we have three different writers writing
the serial in turn, in blocks of six episodes each - the other
writers are Jyotiprakash Atre and Hansa. Having a team of writers
was important because a well-researched project like this needs
to be written with a fresh mind and by taking a break after six
episodes, we get to review our work and come back afresh.
No, it does not lead to breaks in continuity because the series
director coordinates with all of us and in fact, we meet regularly
to chalk out a consensus on developing a given character in the
succeeding episodes.
Mona
Ambegaonkar
Mona
Ambegaonkar, actress
On what Dhadkan has taught her
A lot of things. First and foremost, I have realised that
as in TV production, money is a very important factor in any hospital
and it is the dearth of money that compounds problems. On the
one hand, there is the hospital management that needs revenues;
while on the other, are the doctors who want to save the patient's
life irrespective of his financial position. Finally, there are
the patients who want treatment irrespective of their financial
condition.
I have also realised that as professionals, doctors lead a
very demanding life. Also that, apart from medicines it is faith
that plays a crucial part in treatment. Often, semi-literate and
uneducated people have problems being cured because they have
all kinds of misplaced ideas and they don't trust the doctors.
