It’s a story of rags to riches and dogged determination straight out of a Bollywood potboiler. Right from selling tea on Delhi’s railway platform, serving food at a dhaba on the Lucknow-Kanpur highway, working as a casual labourer in Uptron TV factory to selling belts on a roadside stall in Mumbai, Anil Vishwa Kumar has done them all. The sole aim behind doing all this was earning a living. At that time the world of lights, camera and action was not even a distant dream. But sometimes destiny works in a different way. The horrific communal riots of l992-93 in Mumbai changed the course of Anil’s life beyond his imagination. With the atmosphere in the city extremely tense, Kumar sneaked into the Film City through the unguarded back area to seek refuge from the communal violence. There he got the job of a spot boy which not only gave him a living but also marked an entry into television. From a spot boy he worked his way up and today he is directing two of the most watched soaps - Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kkusum.

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It’s certainly an achievement for an SSC pass student who started his first job as just another spot boy and later became a personal assistant. This was almost a decade ago. Born and brought up in Patna, Kumar’s only dream was to make a good living and direction was never on the cards. “Though I would often bunk school to watch movies it never occurred to me that some day I would become a director,” reminisces the young director who can’t stop thanking Raman Kumar and Vinta Nanda for the support and guidance they gave him and introduced him in the world of television direction. “Ramanji and Bebu(Vinta) are my mentors. Ramanji sparked the hope in me by suggesting the possibility of me becoming a director when I was just his personal assistant while Bebu not only helped me gain confidence but also guided me in making the possibility a reality. They taught me everything that goes into the making of a serial. Another person who helped me become a successful director is Rakesh Sarang who taught me all the technicalities when I assisted him on Shatranj, Umeed and V3+.”

The turning point in his life came while working as Raman Kumar’s personal assistant. One day on the sets of Tara Raman Kumar, in the absence of his regular assistants, was searching for a particular scene that got mixed up among many others. Though Kumar wasn’t involved in the direction he had a slight idea about what the next scene could be and that helped him locate the script Raman was looking for. Impressed with his alertness and involvement, Raman told Kumar, “If you continue to do good work like this a day will come when you will assist me.” After that Kumar started observing everything closely: lighting, the camera movements, actors performing, the way Raman interacted with actors and how, when and why the director would okay the scene. He started getting extremely engrossed in the production process forgetting all about Raman’s personal work. Finally one day, Raman Kumar told Kumar to assist him. Thus the journey began and he hasn’t looked back after that.

He quit Raman Kumar’s company a few months after Raman’s five serials were axed by Zee at one go in mid-1997 which led to people either leaving Tracinema or being asked to quit. Though Kumar continued for some time, Kumar started feeling unwanted in the company. So he quit and started assisting Kushan Nandy on Mr. Gayab. Ten episodes later Kushan made Kumar the episode director but the show went off the air after 26 weeks. Though he didn’t part ways with Kushan, Kumar says there was very little work, mainly episodic work for shows like Saturday Suspense and Thriller At Ten. It was when he was shooting for the latter with Kushan in Sirdi that he met Ekta Kapoor, thanks to his old Tracinema colleague Anurag Basu who introduced Kumar to the soap queen.

Back in Mumbai, he got a call from Balaji Telefilms to direct Kaun which was being telecast on Doordarshan then. He directed just four episodes of the thriller and destiny took another turn. Ekta asked him to direct Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki which she was launching on STAR Plus in September 2000. “It was a huge challenge,” recalls the young director, “because I had only done some episodic work as an independent director and here I was being asked to take an independent charge of a daily soap. But I accepted the challenge and within a few months the result was there for everyone to see.” Having directed 400 episodes of the popular and widely-watched daily which is nothing but the Ramayan set in the new millennium where the members of a united Hindu family play games against blood relatives, Kumar feels the strong point of the daily is the emphasis on traditional joint family values and respect for elders. “Besides, of course the strong characters which are so well-etched in viewer’s memory and simple linear form of story- telling format,” he adds.

A popular soap, lately it’s been getting flak from women’s groups for showing a rapist justifying his action of raping a blind girl. What’s more the serial also showed the husband(the rapist) convincing his wife that the rape was committed not out of lust or desire for Khushi(the blind girl) but out of a need to punish her for “misbehaving” and not respecting him enough. Kumar agrees that rape is a horrific crime which amounts to a gross violation of woman’s dignity. “It should not have happened but it happened because of the story’s demand and to justify the evil character of Deven,” explains Kumar. “Actually it was all aimed at creating drama and the intention was not to hurt anybody”s sensibilities. We have to carry forward the story and therefore have been adding new tracks and characters because the actual story has ended.” Does it mean the serial is now dragging? Kumar disagrees saying, “There is lot more to be explored and told as a sub-text of the main story. If the serial is dragging it wouldn’t have continued to be a chart-buster.”

Moving on to Kkusum, Kumar’s other chart-buster show, the 27-year-old director says the strong point of the show is the main protagonist, a middle-class working girl who travels by bus and locals till she gets married to a rich businessman which marks the beginning of another struggle in her life. “The struggle to win her husband’s love and to fight the evil designs of certain relatives within the family,” says Kumar adding that Kkusum is basically a family drama set in a traditional joint family where again blood relatives play games against an individual whom they consider a threat. But ask Kumar why only certain women have been portrayed in grey or negative shades while the men have been shown as chalk-white in both Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kkusum and he says that the story demands it. “Women have different shades to their personality. Men are also villainous but woman, as they say, is a personification of many characterstics,” he reasons.

Kumar is all praise for Ekta who, he says, gives him total freedom to shoot the way he wants once things are discussed thread-bare in script meetings. The two dailies keep him busy for the entire month and his involvement is right from the script sessions, shoots, editing, post-production till the finalcopy. His day begins at 9 am and ends at mid-night. But Kumar is not complaining. “In fact, I am enjoying my work no matter the stress and strain,” he smiles. After all nothing succeeds like success and success makes one work harder.

AL Chougule