I am thankful to Sony Entertainment Television for getting back Crime Patrol in 2010: Subramanian Iyer

Who has not seen Crime Patrol on Sony Entertainment Television (SET). The show has become a rage with its hard-hitting facts and true stories. The man behind the show is none other than script writer cum director Subramanian Iyer. For our ‘Behind the Lens’ section he shared his journey and some bare facts. How did your journey in entertainment industry begin? Well, I was born and brought up in Ahmadabad. Later, I went to Pune to pursue a course in direction. From there, I got an opportunity to assist ace director Kundan Shah. I continued working with him for years till I did some shows for SET. In the year 2002, I decided to do something of own but at the same time, didn’t want to do dailies. I always wanted to do a different kind of reality show and finally in 2003, I decided to come up with Crime Patrol that happened to be my brain child since 2003. Initially, I started by directing the show but later switched over to write the script for the show as well. How do you choose actors for the show? Though I am in this industry for the last 20 years, I rarely choose or audition actors. In fact, I have a team led by my partner Neeraj Naik for doing this. Yes, it is our constant endeavour to make sure that the actors whom we choose fit the role. How has the response been for Crime Patrol? Well, initially the show wasn’t doing well because not many people used to watch it because it is a fiction-based reality show. However there were times when the show wasn’t doing well, but with the support of channel I could sustain it. I sincerely thank SET for believing in me as a writer and standing by the script and show. Now many people like and watch Crime Patrol and it’s because of the response that the channel revived the show in 2010 after pulling it off for almost a year. As for the TRPs, I don’t know how they get the numbers. And to tell you the fact, I have never worked for TRPs. I was simply doing my work and I thank my channel for that. It is being said that Savdhan India! is a threat to Crime Patrol. Your say? I don’t believe that it’s a threat. While we have a different concept, the makers of Savdhan follow a different one. If you are hinting at competition, I am very much open to competition. Remember when Savdhan India was about to begin, people used to compare both the shows. But I am really not able to understand that how many of them think Crime Patrol and Savdhan India are competitors. According to me, the only thing that makes Crime Patrol different from the other is that we make innovations; we change creatively in the sense that the content is modified but we don’t subject any changes in the plot. We need to understand that the crime issues in 2003 were completely different from what it is today. What are your future plans? Many people have asked me about my future plan. I have many dream projects in my mind but nothing in the pipeline. However, when people ask me to get into dailies, I just say that I am not capable of making dailies since that’s not my genre. Do you watch serials? Yes I do, I watch anything and everything on television. I watch it to keep a tab of the current shows. Tell us something about your personal life? I am happily married and I have a son. Does your family watch Crime Patrol? Yes, they do. I make sure that my family watches the show. Any advice you want to give to aspirants? I would tell them ‘Do your work with good attitude and with lot of confidence. Success will automatically follow.