Shooting at Doordarshan Kendra

The whole of last week was very hectic for Akanksha. Early morning she went to school and after school she had to rush to her dance school for rehearsals for a shooting of a Manipuri dance drama-Krishna Lila, at the Doordarshan Kendra on Saturday to be telecast on the occasion of Janmasthmi. 

On Saturday, all the not less than 30 odd participants reached the Doordarshan premises at the scheduled time of 12 noon. All the participants were accompanied by their moms and curious relatives. I alone accompanied Akanksha as her father had a working day. Yet he was humble enough to drop us at the venue.

The Kolkata Doordarshan Kendra is situated at the posh Golf Green area in the Southern fringe of the city. It is merely one and a half kilometers from our house. As soon as we entered the building the temperature became soothing as the whole of the building is air conditioned. It has lavish rooms and spacious corridors. The whole building is so large that it will take quite sometime to get acquainted. The interiors of the building is beautifully done but it lacked a bit of maintenance. We were led through a vast corridor to the green room. As we entered the green room we found it full of children getting dressed for the program. The seniors were helping the juniors to dress.

Professional make up artists did the make up and the procedure was over by 2 o'clock. The shooting was scheduled to start at around 2.30 p.m. But due to some technical problems it did not start in time. The children started playing antakshari to kill the time. 

Akanksha gives a pose after make-up

Akanksha with Raya

Akanksha with Gunja

In the mean time I somehow managed to enter the studio where the shooting was to take place. I was surprised to see so many people engaged for the particular job. There were camera men, sound technicians, director, helpers, light men etc,. All were busy with their own job. I was standing there and was bound to think so many hard works are behind a finished program presented before us, which we watch sitting at the cozy couch of our living rooms and also we never think twice before criticizing anything that we do not like. May be from now onwards I will give a thought before criticizing such work.

Though photography was prohibited inside, I managed to click a few pictures of the studio with my mobile. It is not clear as I clicked it from quite a distance.

It was 4o'clock but the shooting did not start yet. By then the children became restless. Most of them were hungry and sleepy and wanted to go home. We, the moms, fed them with whatever we had brought from home- cakes, biscuits, chocolates and somehow managed to cool them down. Few of us went to the canteen to bring something for them to eat. The canteen was again very specious that served very tasty tea and coffee and that too at a very cheap rate. Since we went there quite late most of the snacks were finished. There was only sweets(gulab jamuns) left. We ordered 50 gulab jamuns but each of us first sipped a cup of tea and than went to the green room and flashed the news of tea and coffee being served at the canteen. Within a fraction of seconds the waiting room was empty since the parents flocked at the canteen. The children were happy to see the gulab jamuns.

At 5.30 pm the children were finally taken to the studio. The guardians were not allowed to enter the studio and waited at the waiting room for another one and a half hour for the shooting to get over.

At 7 o'clock finally the shooting got over and all of us headed for home. Though it was tiring both for the children and the parents yet it was a whole new experience for all. Also, we parents got more time to know each other well, which otherwise is not possible. Now, waiting with fingers crossed for the day the program would be telecast.