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Once Upon A Prime Time: My Journey on Indian Television
In Once Upon A Prime Time, Ananth Mahadevan pens the memoirs of his journey on Indian television. From first hand experiences with film makers who were the founding fathers of television serials, to today's consumerism driven shows, he has tasted them all. The book reads like an autobiography yet covers virtually every major player who was responsible for the nostalgia that Indian television now evokes. It incorporates exclusive moments with many celebrities and award winning directors. Join the actors on their sets as they perform for television and learn about the stories that made the shows come to life. Covering artistes and makers who impacted our world, such as Amitabh Bachchan, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Sai Paranjpye, Basu Chatterjee, Kundan Shah, Ravi Chopra, Ramesh Sippy , Farooque Shaikh, Aziz Mirza, Gulzar and Govind Nihalani. The book is in all probability, the first ever story of Indian television. Besides taking one down memory lane, this could be a throwback for all those connected with the medium, past and present. It gives you a feeling of travelling through time and watching history being made – behind the scenes. "The book reads like an autobiography, but covers every major player who was responsible for the nostalgia that Indian television now evokes." - Hema Malini
253 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 18, 2020
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 3, 2021
Ananth Mahadevan’s book, “Once upon a Prime time” is not only a memoir of his journey of 40 years in the world of performing arts i.e. Theatre, Cinema, and Television but a documentary or should I say a reference book of the time gone by.
Events with micro and relevant details, learnings, experiences as documented, are most certainly going to be the reference points for the students of the performing arts, I am sure.
It was a pleasure to host Ananth Mahadevan on Saturday 08/08/2020 at the Book Lovers Club as an author speaker. This was an online session due to COVID 19 pandemic.
During the session, that happened over 150 minutes, he kept all of us, audience if full attention as the stories were flowing with his narrative. The book is divided in to three sections, but I am not giving away the book. One must read it.
He shared his experiences, some pleasant and some not so pleasant, with us and the choice that he had to make to move on with his life and career in the world of performing arts, mainly Television. I am referring to the choice he had to make between the Media houses, one that was running his popular show that had a run of about 150 episodes and the other that had just purchased the rites of reviving a show that was All-most a cult on the Television during the Doordarshan times! A project that was his seed and concept and he had a clear vision of how to present it to the audiences. He chose the later.
He covered the days when Mandi House was riding high to the days that if fell short of cutting edge when private television companies came in as competitions.
During the Q and A session he connected the today’s OTT, he calls it Digital and not OTT, working in the same way as he and many of his contemporaries worked for Doordarshan i.e. working with 13 or 26 episodes. Today when a media house makes a web series they shoot A Season and all its content prior to its release. He, it seemed that, was not very happy with the way in which daily soaps are written in the morning, filmed during the day and telecasted the same evening during the prime time.
Overall an excellent session that took the audience on a journey in a time machine with an able guide and saw the world of visual media.
Nostalgia and memories of our own past and experiences of those time came alive and I, we, relived those moments.
Thank you Ananth.
Events with micro and relevant details, learnings, experiences as documented, are most certainly going to be the reference points for the students of the performing arts, I am sure.
It was a pleasure to host Ananth Mahadevan on Saturday 08/08/2020 at the Book Lovers Club as an author speaker. This was an online session due to COVID 19 pandemic.
During the session, that happened over 150 minutes, he kept all of us, audience if full attention as the stories were flowing with his narrative. The book is divided in to three sections, but I am not giving away the book. One must read it.
He shared his experiences, some pleasant and some not so pleasant, with us and the choice that he had to make to move on with his life and career in the world of performing arts, mainly Television. I am referring to the choice he had to make between the Media houses, one that was running his popular show that had a run of about 150 episodes and the other that had just purchased the rites of reviving a show that was All-most a cult on the Television during the Doordarshan times! A project that was his seed and concept and he had a clear vision of how to present it to the audiences. He chose the later.
He covered the days when Mandi House was riding high to the days that if fell short of cutting edge when private television companies came in as competitions.
During the Q and A session he connected the today’s OTT, he calls it Digital and not OTT, working in the same way as he and many of his contemporaries worked for Doordarshan i.e. working with 13 or 26 episodes. Today when a media house makes a web series they shoot A Season and all its content prior to its release. He, it seemed that, was not very happy with the way in which daily soaps are written in the morning, filmed during the day and telecasted the same evening during the prime time.
Overall an excellent session that took the audience on a journey in a time machine with an able guide and saw the world of visual media.
Nostalgia and memories of our own past and experiences of those time came alive and I, we, relived those moments.
Thank you Ananth.
Displaying 1 of 1 review