Production houses to seek legal recourse on DD ban

Banned for two years by Doordarshan, a majority of the 13 production houses are seeking legal recourse. The production houses were banned for submitting blank or repeat tapes under the Short-Term Acquisition Scheme for 2006-07 launched by Doordarshan. Though none wanted to be named for fear of compromising their position, the heads of these houses told indiantelevision.com that they were already seeking legal advice. It is learnt that a High Court has stayed the order with regard to one production house.

Some, however, said they had written letters to Doordarshan explaining their position and seeking personal hearing, and would approach the courts only if they did not receive a satisfactory reply. The proprietor of one house alleged conspiracy by some corrupt DD officials. Parliament was informed late last month that the tapes were submitted to meet the deadline for submission of remaining episodes of the recommended programmes. The ban is effective from April this year. The companies include BAG Film and Media Ltd, Saif Entertainment, Tirupati Production, Astra Productions, Touchstone Communications, Rainbow Films, Matrix Entertainment, Magick Works, Vaishnu Films, Shrey Media Entertainments, Montage Films, Meghna U-Matic Vision, and Bajaj Animation Kendra.

The pubcaster had invited TV producers to participate in the special scheme in 2007 if they had ready programmes on special subjects. The special topics included 150 years of the First War of Indian independence and shows for family viewing. This is not the first instance of blank tapes being submitted to Doordarshan. A total of around 250 blank tapes had been submitted in early 2007 for the DD Urdu channel.