Slow and steady

Acting is his past and direction and production are his present. As an actor he has done theatre for a few years and also been a hero in a Malayalam film. But it is as a director that he has found his true mettle and made his presence felt in tellyland.

Starting as an assistant to Shyam Benegal 12 years ago, Ravi Kemmu branched out on his own a few years ago and since then he has made four regional language serials, two tele-films and a Hindi serial for Zee called Suhana Safar. And currently he is co-producing and directing a soap, Mausam, for Zee’s afternoon band that’s telecast on Wednesdays at 2.00 p.m.

But first his bio-capsule. A National School of Drama (NSD) student, Kemmu did a three-year integration course in acting, direction and stage craft from the NSD. A one year scholarship took him to Kerala where he ended up doing a Malayalam film called Football as hero.

From Kerala he headed to Lucknow where he taught acting and directed plays for four years. In 1984, he won the Sangeet Natak Akademy’s best director award. A year later he landed in Mumbai and did stage for two years.

In 1987 Kemmu joined Shyam Benegal as second assistant. Those were the days when sponsored serials on Doordarshan were at their peak and Benegal too was busy making serials. Kemmu assisted Benegal for Yatra and Katha Sagar which he feels were sort of experiments in commercial television and therefore a good learning experience.

But he had a great time when he assisted Benegal for Discovery Of India a Rs. 4.2 crore, Doordarshan-commissioned project which chronicled the history of India in periodic form, from the ancient civilisation to 1947. “That was the biggest and the best experience of my life,” he informs with a wide smile.

And from being a second assistant, Kemmu became Benegal’s chief assistant and assisted the veteran off-beat filmmaker in various films and serials that he made till 1997 which include Mammo, Sardari Begum, Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda, Amravati Ki Kathayen, Making Of The Mahatma, Sakranti and Antarnad. Obviously he owes his success to Benegal. “Shyam is the most creative director I have worked with and whatever I know about cinema and television is because of him,” he confesses. “I have learnt everything from him — technique, treatment, scripting, how to handle actors and how to work within the limitations.”

And like his mentor, Kemmu too specialises in subjects dealing with romance, sentiments, emotions, relationships and conflict. “I can handle humour, but I can’t make a pure sitcom,” he admits. “Neither can I make a whodunit or a show on the supernatural phenomenon.”

Since his association with Benegal was on a freelance project-to-project basis he branched out on his own in 1992 and made four serials and two tele-films for Srinagar Doordarshan. He quit Benegal’s unit two years ago when he got busy with Suhana Safar which was yanked off abruptly by Zee after 22 episodes. Kemmu says he is still looking for an answer why the serial was taken off all of a sudden.

Post-Suhana Safar, Kemmu produced and directed four stand-alone episodes of Rishtey for Zee and since the past one year, he is busy with Mausam which is inspired by a play called Aakhri Sawal. It revolves around a host of families related to one another living in India and the USA. The serial deals with their dilemmas, identity crisis, illusions, fantasies, materialistic dreams and frustrations.

Shot in Mumbai and New York in 60:40 ratio, Mausam was first telecast on the DD Metro a year ago but it went off the air after 13 episodes because it became commercially unviable. Then Zee picked it up for Zee UK and Zee USA and later put it on its Asian footprint as well. Since it’s being telecast on Zee’s afternoon band and is targeted at women audience, the story has undergone some changes. Explains Kemmu, “We have started highlighting the tracks dealing with female characters and the emphasis is more on relationships and conflict.”

Mausam is 36 episodes old and the contract with Zee is for 52 episodes. But now with its increasing TRPs, Kemmu hopes to stretch the story and take it to its logical end so as to do justice to the multi-layered drama and 13 major characters. “But the ball is in the channel’s court,” he says cautiously.

Besides Mausam Kemmu is working on two more serials which are at the scripting stage. One is a romantic soap on youth in the age group of 18 to 24 called Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke. And the second is a love story set in Kashmir. He is also in the process of planning a sitcom based in New York titled Baap Re Baap New York which will be a co-production.

Kemmu’s dream is to make a film. Having been used to work in a disciplined environment, thanks to his long stint with Benegal, Kemmu says he doesn’t have patience for commercial films. But he is confident that he will make a film on his own terms one day.

A.L. Chougule