The Cultural Tsar

Surabhi gave me a sense of identity, changed my outlook and took away the edge of frustration
- Siddharth Kak

When Doordarshan asked Siddharth Kak to devise a cultural magazine series way back in 1990, little did he realise that he would be revolutionising the then nascent Indian television medium. Surabhi, India's pioneering culturla magazine series, is probably one of the best things that has happened to Indian television, particularly Doordarshan. Started in February 1991, it is the longest running prime-time programme on Doordarshan. What's more, it has also been featured in the Limca Book of Records as the programme with the highest response - 12 lakh letters in one episode.

What really goes to the series' credit is its tenacious hold over the viewing public despite strong competition from the satellite channels' market-driven programming. The fact also comes as a major surprise to Siddharth Kak, the programme's producer-director and co-anchor.

Like the proverbial turtle, Surabhi has managed to hold its own, keeping its head above the surfeit of channels. On the viewership charts, it ranks among the top ten programmes of Doordarshan. Not an easy task for a `non-entertainment' programme which is in its ninth year of telecast.

While the raison d'atre of this relatively staid series is not difficult to establish, its popularity over the years certainly is. Even Kak himself appears baffled. "It is really difficult to say why Surabhi continues to be a popular show," he says with candour. Then reflecting, adds, "Surabhi is a programme of identity. It is important for those who are interested in cultural traditions, knowledge, information, debate and much more." After a long pause he adds, "It is usually your average middle-class Indian less exposed to the information technology and international media who is more interested in watching Surabhi because it fulfils his hopes and aspirations."

It is probably for this reason that the audience for Surabhi exists not in metropolitan India, but in suburban and rural India. The urban viewing population, though interested, is hampered by the wide range of options available to it. Moreover, confusion regarding viewing preferences is the bane of the channel-surfing urban population.

Kak agrees but adds, "It is not that people have stopped watching Surabhi in the big Indian cities, it is that people have stopped watching Doordarshan because it has failed to compete with the satellite channels and improve its programming content. Still Surabhi has its small bunch of viewers in the metros as every week we get 5000 letters on the e-mail."

With satellite television slicing off Doordarshan's viewership, Kak admits that there was this lurking fear at the back of his mind that he would lose his audience. Thus as a pre-emptive measure, he introduced some innovative changes. Initially Surabhi reported more and more information based stories on monuments and cultural traditions. But later he made the programme more personality-based and issue-oriented and added lot of new segments on sports, foods, science, lifestyle and an international forum called Sambandh, and later a segment called Debate which questions our legacies and talks about the direction we are going to take. All this value-addition has goven a new lease of life to Surabhi, which became Amul Surabhi three years ago. That Amul remains its sole sponsor is testamomy to its popularity.

Kak has lived with Surabhi for ten years now, and it has changed him totally as a person. "Before I started working on Surabhi I was rather an alienated person without a sense of identity. I was restless, frustrated and in a dilemma. I was living in India but I used to speak only English. Surabhi helped resolve that dilemma, gave me a sense of identity, changed my outlook and took away the edge of frustration," he says with a broad smile.

Ten years is a long period to be associated with one programme which has faced all kinds of problems and hurdles. Though he remains determined to tread as many untrodden paths as possible and explore the most far-flung nooks and corners of the country as well as the world wherever there is Indian ethos, Kak feels it's time to move ahead, branch out and explore new avenues in the field of culture and traditions.

His Surabhi Foundation for Research and Cultural Exchange is already an entity under which he wants to organise cultural festivals in cities and towns of India as well as in foreign countries. As an experiment, last year he organise a small craft festival in Mumbai. Moreover, he wants to also get into writing.

He wants to get out of Surabhi as director and co-anchor though his creative supervision will remain on it. "I feel it's time others moved in and gave the programme a new sense of direction," he says. He also wants to hand over his other two programmes, Rag Rang (Doordarshan) and Neenad (STAR Plus) to his juniors. Meanwhile he has lined up a daily breakfast show, and a clutch of other shows that will continue to keep his creative juices busy.