I have a long way to go

Abhimanyu Singh the man behind the popular TV show ‘Chakravarthi Ashok Samrat’ speaks about various aspects of the show and his other productions

Abhimanyu Singh began his television production journey back in the early 90’s, when he first independently produced for the public broadcaster – Doordarshan, under the banner of Contiloe. From that day Contiloe, has emerged as one of the leading production houses in India and it has set a lot of firsts in many genres like crime, comedy, detective, horror. Abhimanyu Singh shares his journey.

How has been your journey so far?

I think journey is still on. It’s has been a great journey so far and there is more to come. When you look back, you will have a sense of accomplishment once you have achieved what you want. So, I think I’m still in the middle of my journey

What is the meaning of “Contiloe”?

Contiloe is a place in Odisha. My mother hails from Odisha. She is the person who invented the company 20 years back and gave this name.

On what basis do you pick up a show?

It just a co-incidence that off late most of our shows been mounted in a grand fashion. We have moved into historical and mythological five years back. Apart from this we have done many successful thrillers/horrors all of which need a certain style and depth of field in mounting.

Will you portray the history and mythology stories as they are or with changes?

In historical shows dots and dates has been written with brief account of what happened. Between the dots you always need to dramatise. For instance what happened in a room between Maharana Pratap and his father no one is aware of and that’s never been documented. So these are dramatisations, which you need to do to tell a story. Therefore while the dots stay intact the dramatisation in between has to be done responsibly but has to be done to make a story intriguing.

What type of research do you before you start shooting the show? Where does the research start in the first place?

We have dedicated research teams for every show. Each of us has research head, who has background and body of work that can complement the work, the kind of responsibility the show has.

In the past you did historic shows like ‘Jhansi Ki Rani’ and ‘Veer Shivaji’. What makes you more inclined towards this genre?

It’s a great sense of honour to tell such stories, actually such stories somebody should tell. I have a passion to tell these stories and I’m fortunate to get a chance to tell these stories.

How are you enjoying the success of ‘Chakravarthi Ashok Samrat’?

I think there is still long way to go. In television the only enjoyment that you really have is telling a story. So rest is all the matter of Thursday to Thursday, rating goes up and down. I guess we have a lot of story to tell and our journey is still in the beginning stage and there is a long story to tell and therefore we want focus on that.

If a channel wants to change the plot will you give them chance to change?

It is always a collaboration between channel and the production house. There has always been discussions and amicably one decides on a way forward and moves forward.

Share details about your new venture ‘Agent Raghav’?

‘Agent Raghav’ is a detective series and it basically going to be on murder mysteries. Agent Raghav and team are CBI Agents who are going to solve these mysteries Raghav being a psychiatrist has an advantage of reading people’s body language and will be able to crack cases by seeing what others can’t see because he has the skill set and intelligence level of a detective who can see much more that you and I can.

What is new that we can expect from Agent Raghav?

Detective shows are few. Apart from CID that started 18 years back and is running successfully from so many years, and in between we did a show ‘Krishna Arjun’ that ran for 200 episodes and ‘Adaalat’, which ran for five years. But there are no shows in between, which came and made a mark.

I think there is a potential where people do want to watch mysteries but there isn’t enough of it. Apart from ‘Savdaan India’ and ‘Crime Patrol’ are true dramatisations of true events that have happened, you don’t have much mystery and detective shows in the country. If you see the ratio you will have nearly 50 soaps and one murder mystery which is ‘CID’. Here Raghav himself is going to be the differentiator.

By:Abhyudaya Karamchetu