Making waves, since Seventies
Harjap Singh Aujla
Here’s recounting circumstances that led to the coming up of the first TV station in east Punjab.
TODAY there are thousands of television channels flourishing in about thirty regional, one national and one link language in India. TV is big business today, but it had a very humble beginning. For more than a decade after the debut of television in New Delhi, the development of television in India was dormant and then circumstances led to the opening of three stations.
There are always certain milestones of historic dimensions, which, buried under heaps of dust,
go unrecorded. Many times such milestones remain buried forever if no one bothers to records these events. One such landmark event concerns the evolution of East Punjab’s first television station, which opened in the then largest city of East Punjab and the financial and industrial capital of the state of those days. That was the television centre in the holy city of Amritsar.
If we talk about the evolution of television services in undivided Punjab, we automatically start thinking of Lahore Television Centre, which opened in 1965. When Lahore Television centre launched its broadcasts, the wealthy businessmen and industrialists of Amritsar started buying television receivers. A few imported their television receivers through their relatives living abroad. Some purchased their television sets in Delhi and installed those in Amritsar.
The height of the television tower in Lahore and the power of its transmitter was sufficient to penetrate every part of Amritsar district and more than half of Gurdaspur district. Soon directional VHF receiving antennae started mushrooming on the roof tops over the houses in the wealthy localities of Amritsar including Lawrence Road, Mall Road, Kennedy Avenue, Court Road, Maqbool Road, etc. During that eventful year of 1966, thousands of TV reception antennae could be seen protruding over skies in Amritsar. The crows and the sparrows had a good time!
Let us face the fact that the programmes of Delhi Television Station were very much primitive and lackluster, compared to those coming from Lahore. The finest male singers of Pakistan, including Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Amanat Ali Khan, Tufail Niazi, Sain Akhtar Hussain, Sabri Brothers, Showqat Ali, Hamid Ali Bela, to name a few, took pride in performing in Pakistani television stations. Similarly, the first-grade female singers including Malika Pukhraj, Tahira Sayyed, Iqbal Bano, Farida Khanum and Naheed Akhtar found it prestigious to sing over the airwaves of Pakistan’s television stations. On the other hand, the biggies of Bollywood were clearly disinclined to appear on Delhi Television Centre. Only the local talent was supreme on the Indian television. In addition, the dramas and serials of Pakistan television were made highly professionally and these became very popular all over India.
Then came the 1971 Indo-Pak War. The signal of Delhi Television could not reach Punjab and the signal of Lahore Television was just like local in Amritsar. All the television set owners in Amritsar and its vicinity got their news and information from Pakistan Television, Lahore. Soon after the war ended in 1972, government of India decided to open new television stations in Bombay and Amritsar. The construction of the television tower in Amritsar started in 1972 itself, but it took more than one year to complete.
For training and other purposes, the entire production staff of the Amritsar Television Centre was stationed in New Delhi. When the time for inauguration of the station came, nobody knew where the three-day inaugural carnival should be held. There was no studio complex in Amritsar where the inaugural carnival could be held. Eventually three places in the city were shortlisted to be the expected venues of the opening gala. These were the 170-year-old Ram Bagh Gardens (also known as the Company Bagh), built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the modern concrete campus of the Guru Nanak Dev University and the magnificent historic building complex of Khalsa College. Finally, the decision went in favour of the lush green front lawns of Khalsa College with the backdrop of the heritage architectural masterpiece.
The choice of becoming the master of ceremonies was between Delhi Television’ senior-most news anchor Pratima Puri, a Punjabi lady by origin, or Minu Talwar, the youngest and the most glamorous announcer-cum-news anchor of Delhi Television those days. Minu Talwar also belongs to a Punjabi Khatri family and speaks her mother tongue fluently. She can effortlessly shift from English to Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. The main reason for according so much importance to glamour was that all the female announcers and news anchors of Lahore Television Centre were extremely glamorous and India had to match them. Minu Talwar could match the charm and charisma of any Pakistani TV anchor. During the opening gala, Minu Talwar stayed in Amritsar for the three days. According to reports received from across the Border, Minu Talwar impressed every viewer in Pakistan too.
Legendry Ustad Bismillah Khan played Shehnai on the very first evening. Other great artistes like Surinder Kaur and Parkash Kaur also performed. The finest gidha dancers gathered from all over Punjab and the most talented, burly bhangra dancers presented programmes. Giani Zail Singh, the then chief minister of Punjab, gave the inaugural speech. The three-day ceremony was watched by everyone who had a television set in Amritsar and its vicinity. Reports from across the border indicated that there was a huge response to this opening ceremony in the city of Lahore and its vicinity also.
During the teething days, the programmes were all canned in New Delhi and dispatched daily by air to Amritsar. Sardar Albail Singh Grewal, a senior bureaucrat of the All India Radio, based in New Delhi, became the station director of All India Radio Television Station, Amritsar. Under his guidance, more than 80 per cent of the programmes of Amritsar Television Station were produced in Punjabi.
In comparison, the Lahore Television Centre, although located in the heart of Standard Punjabi-speaking area of Pakistan, had not been according any importance to Punjabi. More than eighty per cent of the programmes at this station were being made in Urdu and English and hardly 10 to 20 per cent programmmes were in Punjabi. Though things have changed a lot since 1973, I thought it was appropriate to record this lost real story. All India Radio television station in Amritsar had always led from the front as far as the Punjabi content in its programming is concerned. This station has been producing the finest programs of poetry, drama, talks, discussions, news, views and music. Later on, when the station was moved to Jalandhar, the Punjabi content was never compromised with.
Christened as Doordarshan Jalandhar, as many as seven daily news bulletins are broadcast in Punjabi at present. The standard of Punjabi drama has always seen ascendancy at this station. Amritsar’s famous light classical singers, the Wadali Brothers, have been significant figures at the station and so has been singer Gurmeet Bawa. The other stalwarts include Sardool Sikandar, Barqat Sidhu, Hans Raj Hans, Sabarkoti, Sarbjit Kaur, Dolly Guleria, Master Saleem and Kanth Kaler to name a few.
harjapaujla@gmail.com
Here’s recounting circumstances that led to the coming up of the first TV station in east Punjab.
TODAY there are thousands of television channels flourishing in about thirty regional, one national and one link language in India. TV is big business today, but it had a very humble beginning. For more than a decade after the debut of television in New Delhi, the development of television in India was dormant and then circumstances led to the opening of three stations.
There are always certain milestones of historic dimensions, which, buried under heaps of dust,
go unrecorded. Many times such milestones remain buried forever if no one bothers to records these events. One such landmark event concerns the evolution of East Punjab’s first television station, which opened in the then largest city of East Punjab and the financial and industrial capital of the state of those days. That was the television centre in the holy city of Amritsar.If we talk about the evolution of television services in undivided Punjab, we automatically start thinking of Lahore Television Centre, which opened in 1965. When Lahore Television centre launched its broadcasts, the wealthy businessmen and industrialists of Amritsar started buying television receivers. A few imported their television receivers through their relatives living abroad. Some purchased their television sets in Delhi and installed those in Amritsar.
The height of the television tower in Lahore and the power of its transmitter was sufficient to penetrate every part of Amritsar district and more than half of Gurdaspur district. Soon directional VHF receiving antennae started mushrooming on the roof tops over the houses in the wealthy localities of Amritsar including Lawrence Road, Mall Road, Kennedy Avenue, Court Road, Maqbool Road, etc. During that eventful year of 1966, thousands of TV reception antennae could be seen protruding over skies in Amritsar. The crows and the sparrows had a good time!
Let us face the fact that the programmes of Delhi Television Station were very much primitive and lackluster, compared to those coming from Lahore. The finest male singers of Pakistan, including Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Amanat Ali Khan, Tufail Niazi, Sain Akhtar Hussain, Sabri Brothers, Showqat Ali, Hamid Ali Bela, to name a few, took pride in performing in Pakistani television stations. Similarly, the first-grade female singers including Malika Pukhraj, Tahira Sayyed, Iqbal Bano, Farida Khanum and Naheed Akhtar found it prestigious to sing over the airwaves of Pakistan’s television stations. On the other hand, the biggies of Bollywood were clearly disinclined to appear on Delhi Television Centre. Only the local talent was supreme on the Indian television. In addition, the dramas and serials of Pakistan television were made highly professionally and these became very popular all over India.
Then came the 1971 Indo-Pak War. The signal of Delhi Television could not reach Punjab and the signal of Lahore Television was just like local in Amritsar. All the television set owners in Amritsar and its vicinity got their news and information from Pakistan Television, Lahore. Soon after the war ended in 1972, government of India decided to open new television stations in Bombay and Amritsar. The construction of the television tower in Amritsar started in 1972 itself, but it took more than one year to complete.
For training and other purposes, the entire production staff of the Amritsar Television Centre was stationed in New Delhi. When the time for inauguration of the station came, nobody knew where the three-day inaugural carnival should be held. There was no studio complex in Amritsar where the inaugural carnival could be held. Eventually three places in the city were shortlisted to be the expected venues of the opening gala. These were the 170-year-old Ram Bagh Gardens (also known as the Company Bagh), built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the modern concrete campus of the Guru Nanak Dev University and the magnificent historic building complex of Khalsa College. Finally, the decision went in favour of the lush green front lawns of Khalsa College with the backdrop of the heritage architectural masterpiece.
The choice of becoming the master of ceremonies was between Delhi Television’ senior-most news anchor Pratima Puri, a Punjabi lady by origin, or Minu Talwar, the youngest and the most glamorous announcer-cum-news anchor of Delhi Television those days. Minu Talwar also belongs to a Punjabi Khatri family and speaks her mother tongue fluently. She can effortlessly shift from English to Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. The main reason for according so much importance to glamour was that all the female announcers and news anchors of Lahore Television Centre were extremely glamorous and India had to match them. Minu Talwar could match the charm and charisma of any Pakistani TV anchor. During the opening gala, Minu Talwar stayed in Amritsar for the three days. According to reports received from across the Border, Minu Talwar impressed every viewer in Pakistan too.
Legendry Ustad Bismillah Khan played Shehnai on the very first evening. Other great artistes like Surinder Kaur and Parkash Kaur also performed. The finest gidha dancers gathered from all over Punjab and the most talented, burly bhangra dancers presented programmes. Giani Zail Singh, the then chief minister of Punjab, gave the inaugural speech. The three-day ceremony was watched by everyone who had a television set in Amritsar and its vicinity. Reports from across the border indicated that there was a huge response to this opening ceremony in the city of Lahore and its vicinity also.
During the teething days, the programmes were all canned in New Delhi and dispatched daily by air to Amritsar. Sardar Albail Singh Grewal, a senior bureaucrat of the All India Radio, based in New Delhi, became the station director of All India Radio Television Station, Amritsar. Under his guidance, more than 80 per cent of the programmes of Amritsar Television Station were produced in Punjabi.
In comparison, the Lahore Television Centre, although located in the heart of Standard Punjabi-speaking area of Pakistan, had not been according any importance to Punjabi. More than eighty per cent of the programmes at this station were being made in Urdu and English and hardly 10 to 20 per cent programmmes were in Punjabi. Though things have changed a lot since 1973, I thought it was appropriate to record this lost real story. All India Radio television station in Amritsar had always led from the front as far as the Punjabi content in its programming is concerned. This station has been producing the finest programs of poetry, drama, talks, discussions, news, views and music. Later on, when the station was moved to Jalandhar, the Punjabi content was never compromised with.
Christened as Doordarshan Jalandhar, as many as seven daily news bulletins are broadcast in Punjabi at present. The standard of Punjabi drama has always seen ascendancy at this station. Amritsar’s famous light classical singers, the Wadali Brothers, have been significant figures at the station and so has been singer Gurmeet Bawa. The other stalwarts include Sardool Sikandar, Barqat Sidhu, Hans Raj Hans, Sabarkoti, Sarbjit Kaur, Dolly Guleria, Master Saleem and Kanth Kaler to name a few.
harjapaujla@gmail.com
South Asia Post: June 30, 2011