Content clash: From Ashoka to Chandrakanta..analysing its origin and impact

‘Content’ is King, and good content always speaks volumes in the success of a TV show or movie. 

Today’s television industry is churning out some great concepts with regards to all the genres, whether it is the saas – bahu dramas, social shows, comedy or the histo/mytho/ fantasy projects or the most popular supernatural ones. 

But one trend that has been observed in the last few years is of the same idea and concept being worked upon by two major GECs. The interesting aspect is that most of the production houses and channels have gotten into this ‘confusing/duplication’ plot mainly when they have been working on a historical or mythological concept, as such concepts do not come with a copyright. 

Such age-old facts and stories related to mythology and history are sure guarantees to success, and every channel and producer comes with his /her own vision to explore the concept. 

Earlier, it was a tug of war for the concept of Emperor Ashoka between Star Plus and Colors. While Swastik Productions was making it for Star Plus, Contiloe was planning to come up with the same concept on Colors. And the end result was that Colors came up with an overnight teaser of its version of Ashoka, thus leaving the other party in a quandary. Ultimately, it was Colors who won the race while Star Plus decided to pull back its idea.

Later, the concept of Bajirao Mastani gained prevalence post the success of the Sanjay Leela Bhansali popular flick on the same concept. This time, a new player Peninsula Pictures was working on the audio pilot of the concept for &TV; at the same time, Sphereorigins was also working on the model for Sony TV. However, with Sphereorigins gaining a spring in its development, &TV decided to forego the ambitious project.

Now, the same channel tug of war has happened all over again over the concept of Chandrakanta. Both Life OK and Colors have been working on the same idea for a while now. This time around, the teaser of the concept has been put on air on both the channels. While it is Balaji Telefilms conceptualizing it for Colors, Nikhil Sinha’s Trilogy Films is also making Chandrakanta for Life OK.

Considering that this has been a phenomenon lifting up its head every now and then, we at Tellychakkar.com wondered about its repercussions on the channels and production houses and how we can evade such a scenario in the near future.

We talk to industry stalwarts to gain knowledge on how this situation can be tackled or averted.

Producer Rajan Shahi, Director’s Kut explains, “This is a phenomena and it can happen in any creative field. There might be two people working on similar thoughts at the same time. I believe this is a natural and an ongoing process. It can also happen within the same channel in normal fiction shows too. Similar tracks can happen more or less at the same time or even after. So content clash is not a very alarming thing. The show which makes it better will survive.”

A prominent industry source, privy to the workings of a popular GEC reacted to the thought saying, “Such clashes in content have happened ealier too. It’s recurrent in mythological, historical and fantasy based concepts having no no copyright. I would attribute the reason for such duplicacy in ideas to be erupting because of fierce competition. If you see, the concept of Naagin has been poached from Zee TV, isn’t it? So what I am trying to tell is that these are universal concepts, and even you and I can make it. There will always be a first-mover advantage in such cases, and the one who will connect better with his / her concept will emerge as the winner. If you look at it, Chandrakanta was first made during the Doordarshan days. The same is with Ramayan.”

Also, in an era where people talk of coming up with original content every now and then, Producer Rajan Shahi has a totally different take on it. “There is no original show that is running in today’s time. If you see, every show is either a rehash of an earlier TV show or its plot or an old movie. So who can actually boast of having original content today? exclaims Rajan. 

So what will be the repercussions of such clashes on channels and production houses? Who will suffer the most? 

A noted producer on terms of anonymity shares with us, “Producers are certainly not at fault. It is always the channels which will be at a loss. So it is upon the channels to gear up, smell the idea, react to it and put it into practice overnight.”

Vikas Gupta, who has served both as producer and a Channel Head, explained his thought process. And his idea seems to be a real eye-opener. “See, this occurence is not something new. It happens in both TV and in films. If you have seen, there were many films that came around the basic concept of ‘detective’. Movie on Shahid Bhagat Singh was made by more than two players. The same is with TV. When one starts working on a concept, the other one who would have earlier thought about it will also want to join the race. So it is not about stealing the limelight. It is rather about who will make it first.”

Acclaimed director and producer Arvind Babbal shared his thoughts with us. “This always happens with the age-old content related to our history and culture. Of course, everyone makes it with his /her own vision. But when such an issue creeps up, no two channels can have the same program on air. So one has to drop out the idea. And this is indeed sad.”

Arvind Babbal feels that there is a huge dearth of new content in TV today, and this is the prime reason why channels and producers always run behind the age-old content to get success. Also he feels that the system of putting out the teaser first even without having a strategy planned is very wrong. “This actually affects the preparation of the big project. Usually a huge project of this stature needs to go through a good scripting phase, and pre-production phase. Same goes with the actors and the VFX team and technicians. If you are committed to bringing your product on air, it means you have lesser time to work on and this ultimately affects the quality of the product.”

Vikas feels that he will be rather happy to see two players coming up with the same concept in their own way at the same time. “Yes, this will be an interesting change. It will be a very nice situation to see. It will be good to see two people saying the same story in their own interpretations. Of course, this has its own repercussions. Ratings for one might not be good, and the viewership will be divided. But that is business, right? Whoever will come up with a better product will continue to rule. When people say, Sarkaar is Ram Gopal Verma’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, it is the truth. Yes it will be a suicide for someone, but I guess we need to go ahead and make it.” 

Arvind Babbal feels that this problem can be internally worked out and sorted. “This situation is not good for TV at all. There are only few producers who can think wise and the same applies to broadcasters too. If one person has been working on it for nine months then the understanding has to be there and he needs to go ahead and make it. We should sort out such things internally.”

Very well said, you all!!

Incidentally, both ‘Chandrakanta warring producers’ Nikhil Sinha and Ekta Kapoor chose not to respond to our query.

We reached out to varied channel heads, but we met with no light at the end of the tunnel.

To summarise, agreed that mytho/historical concepts have no copyright, hence the big risk of more than one players working on the same idea. Accepted that this actually brings in intense competition and the phenomenon of the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ takes its own course. 

Maybe, we just need to go with the flow and wait for the right time for things to fall in place. Having said this, guess the idea is to work quickly on a concept on hand, announce it at the earliest in order to stop such issues from creeping up. 

What do you guys think about this? Whose thoughts do you agree with the most? Drop in your comments here.