Doordarshan turns 65: A rich history of India’s state broadcast service

The channel used to be the one-stop destination for a large chunk of the population with regard to entertainment and knowledge. It became a national broadcaster in 1982.

Mumbai: State-owned public television broadcaster, Doordarshan completed 65 years on Sunday. The channel, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, is one of Prasar Bharati’s two divisions. It was established on September 15, 1959.

The channel used to be the one-stop destination for a large chunk of the population with regard to entertainment and knowledge. It became a national broadcaster in 1982.

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Doordarshan operates 46 studios and 33 television channels, including the two pan-India channels (DD National and DD News). It also has 17 regional satellite channels, 11 state networks, an international channel (DD India), a sports channel (DD Sports), DD Bharati, DD Urdu as the cultural and informative channels and an agricultural channel.

It has also been the network that broadcasts the Indian epics ‘Mahabharat’ and ‘Ramayan’ which gained a significant fan following and continue to be one of the most loved shows showcasing the mythology of India.

The broadcaster reached its peak in the 1980s owing to the success of ‘Mahabharat’ and ‘Ramayan’. However, with the Indian economy opening up with the new economic policy of 1991 with the exposure to the global market, many private channels entered in India airing fiction and non-fiction shows with mostly urban settings. These shows carrying the aspirations of big cities also appealed to the people in small towns and tier 2 or tier 3 cities.

Soon, Doordarshan’s popularity started plummeting. This was further accentuated by the rising popularity of news channels which would present news in an entertaining way building on sensationalism which took people’s attention away from Doordarshan’s straightforward way of presenting the news without any colour.

However, it’s not like Doordarshan has been untouched by criticism. During the Emergency, the broadcaster was used to disseminate government propaganda. During Operation Blue Star in 1984 in Amritsar, only government sources were used to report the story.