End of a legend

He spawned the genre of the mythological on Indian television, and had an entire generation hooked to TV screens on Sunday mornings. A migrant from the world of movies, Dr Ramanand Sagar, Sagar Arts' patriarch who passed away on Monday night, will probably best be remembered for Ramayan, the 80s televised version of the Tulsi epic that Sagar retold for Indian audiences. Dr Sagar, honoured with a Padmashri by the Indian government in 2001, was bestowed the Lifetime Contribution to Indian Television award at the Indian Telly Awards 2004, among several other honours that came his way. His contribution to the industry is indeed huge. In the mid 1970s, Dr Sagar and his sons visited a French home and watched television together. The realisation dawned that TV was the right medium to bring families together to watch respectable programmes. Along with his sons, he took the biggest stride in TV history nearly a decade later and this move gave the entire family international recognition. In 1985, the Sagar group were the first film family to enter the TV software production. Starting with the mega-hit TV serial Vikram aur Betaal; fairy tales such as Dada Dadi ki Kahaniyan; mythological tales such Ramayan, Shri Krishna, Alif Laila, Jai Ganga maiya, Gurukul and now Ankhen. The Sagar group logged 2,000 hours of television software in 15 years. In 1936, Dr Sagar started his film career with the silent movie Raiders of the Rail Road. In 1940-41, he was signed as a leading man for the film Koel and as Abhimanyu in an unfinished film Krishna at Shalimar Studio, Poona. In 1942-43, he was invited by the then famous director Mehboob Khan and also by the famous writers Krishen Chander and Monto to come to Bombay. Dr Sagar stayed with actor Sajjan at his residence in Malad. His entry into the world of films happened when he wrote the story, screenplay for Raj Kapoor's super hit Barsaat. In 1950, Dr Sagar launched his own production company Sagar Arts and the first film was Mehmaan (the guest). In 1957, his film Paigham (starring Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar and Vaijayanti Mala) won the Filmfare award for the best dialogue and thus began the golden period of his film career. Dr Sagar's other strong points as a producer and director were evergreen music, massive productions, spectacular locations and big star casts. His group of companies produced over 25 motion pictures till 1984 with over 15 of them being box office hits; some of them crossed 75 weeks theatrically; and some have become evergreen hits in the annals of Indian cinema. The blockbusters include silver jubilees - six in a row - including Ghunghat, Zindagi, Aarzoo, Geet, Lalkar, Hamrahi, Charas, Pyaara Dushman, Ram Bharose, Bhagawat and a diamond jubilee Ankhen. His legacy is being carried on by the next generations of Sagars, who continue to make television shows like Hatim, Hello Dollie and Akkad Bakkad Bambey Bo (all for Star Plus), Hotel Kingston (Star One) and now the proposed Prithvi for Star Plus.