God in your living room, thanks to TV

[Guest guest]

The one above is now in your living room, thanks to TV channels

 

Salvation at a finger-tip as religious channels claim to have hooked

around 12 million viewers, Uttar Pradesh leads the pack

 

Anuradha Raman

 

New Delhi, April 21: AS things stand, the cable operator willing, the

remote control could govern your relationship with the one above. At

last count, there were three channels beaming matters of faith round-

the-clock to soothe an angst-ridden generation, and the numbers

praying before their TV sets are only growing.

 

The objective is a noble one: ``to usher in a new India'' as a

channel owner puts it; the medium for the message, television. Take

your pick: for a new world order based on Vedic knowledge, there's

the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi channel, for kirtans and pravachans at any

time of the day, there's the Sanskar and Astha channels. That apart

from mythological serials like Ma Shakti on Star and Sri Ganesh on

Sony.

 

Though Doordarshan set the foundation for televised faith with the

Ramayana serial, the first to cast the stone was the Maharishi Mahesh

Yogi channel nearly three years ago. Each channel claims at have

least four-five million viewers, Uttar Pradesh has the maximum

viewership, followed closely by Gujarat.

 

Though the content is avowedly religious, the channels prefer the all-

encompassing label ``cultural''. ``When a child returns from school,

all he gets to watch are MTV and Channel V, which we think is not

right if the child has to evolve into a good Indian citizen. It is to

provide a proper cultural environment that Sanskar was started eight

months ago,'' says the channel's marketing official Dinesh Kabra.

 

The channel, which claims a viewership of five million, is promoted

by four businessmen—Kishore Mohta, Sunil Machsar, Anurag Maheshwari

and Dilip Kabra. The businessman don't mind advertising, though they

don't accept cigarette and tobacco commercials. Currently, J

Hampstead suitings and Emami are regular sponsors.

 

But the Maharishi channel, which says it has four million viewers,

doesn't accept commercials. Coordinator Jugantar Saxena says, ``The

channel's aim is to propagate Vedic knowledge which is complete in

all aspects.''

 

Running the channel, though, requires some very worldly skills. The

initial investment is nearly Rs 5 crore annually for hiring a

transponder on the available satellites plus around 3 crore for round-

the-clock programming.

 

While the Maharishi channel is on the expensive PAS-4 satellite,

Astha and Sanskar are on Thiacom. Astha offsets costs by also running

a CMM music channel. ``We are getting ads, but it's a long way before

we can rely entirely on advertising revenue. But with a viewership

base of nearly eight million, I am not bothered about returns,'' says

channel owner Kirit Mehta.

 

Astha, incidentally, bagged exclusive rights to telecast the Maha

Kumbh mela, and is planning to introduce new programmes on Yoga and

meditation. ``We are also promoting laughter as the best medicine to

stay healthy,'' says Mehta.

 

While Sanskar is going to troop into schools to catch children

praying on camera. ``Our viewership resides in the small towns of

India and we hope it will increase in metros,'' says Kabra.

 

But Maharishi's coordinator is unconcerned about viewership. ``The

response has been encouraging and cable operators have volunteered to

show our channel because of public demand,'' says Saxena.

 

``As the channels are free to air and as there is demand, especially

from the old and the aged, we go ahead and show them,'' says cable

operator Vicky Chaudhary.