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Creative Eye enters another phase of expansion

He’s the big guy of the small screen. Starting with a patriotic serial Kahan Gaye Woh Log which glorified the struggle of unknown freedom fighters to a mega mythological Om Namah Shivay, the No.1 serial on DD, Dheeraj Kumar has charted an enviable track record of success. His company Creative Eye Ltd., has in a span of 15 years produced 1000 hours of programming consisting largely of social dramas, sitcoms and mythologicals that have scored a hit with the viewers.

This month, the company is entering another phase of expansion, creatively and financially. It has come out with its first public offering (IPO) of 25,02,400 equity shares. The issue consists of book building portion which is for 75 per cent of the total issue size and the minimum size of the application is 1000 shares.

The fixed portion is for 25 per cent of the total issue size through proportionate allotment. Dheeraj Kumar expects an "overwhelming response from the public since the company has always believed in honesty, integrity and transparency." "Most importantly," he says, "I have crystal clear plans on how to utilise the funds."

Part of the funds will go into updating his state-of-the-art studio division. Currently, all his programmes are shot on beta which he wants to change to digital. "In the coming months the broadcasters are going to accept only digitally recorded programmes and nothing else," he informs. Money will also be pumped into its marketing division which acquires the rights of blockbuster films telecast on DD1 and DD2. "Right now, we are marketing only one film per month on DD1 and one film every week on DD2. I want to increase the number on both the channels," he says.

To be a part of the boom, the dot com business has created, Creative Eye too is planning to start two web portals entry2india.com and mantrashakti.com and get into e-commerce. While the former will be a research-based informative site on various institutions, colleges, hospitals and the like in India, the later will be devoted to mantras of all kinds. A third portal dedicated to agro India is in the conceptual stage.

On the creative side, the company has embarked on a new venture Jap Tap Vrat, a mythological serial being directed by Dheeraj Kumar. Scheduled for telecast on Doordarshan every Sunday morning from July end, this one will elucidate the importance of jap (chantings) tap (meditation) and vrat (vows) in our life. The stories centering around three Gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh have been sourced from various epics and researched by Oriental Research Institute.

Next in line is a daily soap Insaniyat, again for DD, but this will have Dheeraj in front of the camera. "After a long time, I felt the urge to act because it’s a social drama close to my heart," explains the actor-director. Insaniyat is being directed by Bishnu Pal Choudhary who has to his credit the most popular Bengali daily soap Janini. Insaniyat revolves around Rohini Hattangady, who runs an orphanage, and four other major characters representing different strata of society.

Apart from these two serials, Dheeraj Kumar is planning programmes for satellite channels something which he had assiduously avoided so far. So what has bought about this change? "Earlier satellite channels insisted on owning the rights of a programme and I was not interested in that. As a maker, the rights should completely belong to me. Now, the channels have come around to thinking on those lines. I would call this a joint venture because the channel will hold one telecast right for three years and later assign it to the producer," he explains. His first programme, a mythological will be on Zee which had telecast his Adalat for a short period. Negotiations are also on with STAR for a historical and a daily soap that has been tentatively titled Doli.

As for any plans of starting his own channel, Dheeraj shrewdly says, "I don’t think I need to do that. Recently I have acquired one hour slots per day on 13 regional channels of DD which means I have to produce/market programmes worth 13 hours every day. I have in turn given the slot to Teleshopping networks. It’s like a channel within a channel." With 22 hours of programming currently on air which includes Rangoli in four languages, Chitrahaar in two languages, Aap Ki Pasand, programmes on DD Chennai and other satellite regional channels, Dheeraj Kumar’s Creative Eye is all set to explore new avenues.

Chaya Unnikrishnan