On October 1, 1992, Zee TV opened a new window for Indian television. Karuna Samtani, Zee’s first employee, remembers its pioneering years, creative risks and why another golden era may now be emerging.

There are some dates that remain etched in your memory not because you have made an effort to remember them, but because you know, even as they are happening, that you are witnessing the beginning of something. October 1, 1992 is one such date for me. It was the day Zee TV went on air, and with it began a new chapter in the history of Indian television.

I know how much that statement means because I was there from the beginning. I was the first employee of Zee, and over the years that followed I became its programming head, working with an extraordinary group of people to create more scores of television series, shows and reality entertainment programmes. Looking back today, I realise that what made those years so special was not simply that we were doing something new. It was that we genuinely believed Indian audiences were ready for something new.

Before Zee TV, Doordarshan Built The Audience

But the story of Zee cannot begin without acknowledging what came before it. Indian television had already experienced a remarkable creative flowering through Doordarshan. In the 1980s, when there was essentially one national television service, programmes such as Hum Log and Buniyaad, written by Manohar Shyam Joshi, Ramayan, Mahabharat and Surabhi demonstrated what could happen when extraordinary writers, directors, actors and producers were given the opportunity to tell stories to a national audience.

Hum Log and Buniyaad were rooted in the lives of ordinary Indians, while Ramayan and Mahabharat transformed television viewing into a collective experience. Dr Rahi Masoom Raza's writing for Mahabharat, Ramanand Sagar's epic treatment of Ramayan, Sidharth Kak's distinctive presentation of Surabhi and the work of so many others created a television culture that was intelligent, ambitious and deeply Indian.

The actors became stars in a way that television had never seen before. Arun Govil, Deepika Chikhalia, Mukesh Khanna, Kanwaljit Singh, Neena Gupta, Kiran Juneja, Mita Vashisht, Abhinav Chaturvedi and many others suddenly became familiar faces in homes across the country.

There was very little of the clutter we know today. There were fewer channels, fewer programmes and fewer choices. Yet perhaps precisely because there was less competition for the viewer's attention, the relationship between a story and its audience could become extraordinarily powerful.

Zee TV And The Birth Of Private Satellite Television

Zee entered this environment at a moment when India itself was changing. The liberalisation of the economy had begun. Cable television was spreading. Satellite technology was opening possibilities that had previously seemed distant. And suddenly there was an opportunity to create an Indian television network that was not dependent on the old terrestrial model.

Dr Subhash Chandra had the vision to take that leap.

Around him came a remarkable team that included Nitin Keni, Digvijay Singh, Kamlesh Pandey, Meenakshi Menon and many others. We were young enough to believe that almost anything was possible, but experienced enough to understand that audiences would not accept novelty simply for the sake of novelty. We had to entertain them, surprise them and, most importantly, respect them. That is where programming became the heart of the exercise.

Saanp Seedi And A New Language Of Television

I remember Saanp Seedi particularly because it represents so much of what we were trying to discover and because it was the first show to air on Zee TV on this day 34 years ago.

Mohan Kapur became the first anchor of Zee TV. Before the channel actually began its commercial journey, he had done a prototype for us — a song-based entertainment presentation that helped us understand what a compact entertainment package could be. What immediately struck me was his instinct for the camera. He had an extraordinary gift for improvisation, a sharp sense of humour, an infectious personality and the confidence to respond to whatever was happening around him.

Mohan did not behave like someone who was simply presenting a programme. He became part of the programme.

That distinction seems obvious today, but at the time it was enormously important. Anchoring was still evolving as an Indian television language. Mohan understood that the presenter could create an intimate relationship with the audience. He could tease, joke, react, improvise and personalise the experience. Many of the conventions that subsequently became familiar in Indian television anchoring can be traced back to people like him experimenting with this new freedom.

Saanp Seedi itself was a wonderfully inventive format. It combined a game, celebrity participation, physical and mental challenges, audience involvement and continuous entertainment. It could be watched by children, parents and grandparents. The studio audiences became an essential part of the energy, while participation came from across India and, eventually, beyond India as well.

Adi Pocha was one of the brilliant creative minds behind it, and his willingness to take risks was exactly what the new medium required. UTV, under Ronnie Screwvala, was beginning to understand something fundamental about the emerging television business: creativity and commerce did not have to be enemies. A strong creative idea could become a strong business proposition if it understood its audience and its platform.

Ronnie was one of the sharpest creative-business leaders I have known. He understood the commercial possibilities of the medium without losing sight of the importance of the idea. Dr Subhash Chandra, meanwhile, deserves enormous credit for taking the leap of faith that made the entire experiment possible. I often found myself functioning as a bridge between these two very large minds, trying to bring creative ambition and business understanding into the same conversation.

The Golden Years Of Experimentation

That was the atmosphere in which Zee grew. We were not simply trying to replicate Doordarshan with more programmes. We were expanding the vocabulary of Indian television.

There were detective and crime formats such as Commander. There were programmes such as Chakravyuha. There were shows like Tara, Banegi Apni Baat and Campus, which spoke to different generations and began to explore contemporary urban India in ways that terrestrial television had rarely been able to do. Ghoomta Aaina, associated with ANI and Sanjeev Prakash, brought current affairs into the programming mix. There was astrology with Jagjit Uppal, films, music and entertainment programming such as Gaane Anjaane.

Every new programme seemed to suggest that television could be something else. That was perhaps the most exciting part of the period. We did not yet have an established formula for success. There was no enormous library of data telling us precisely what viewers wanted. There were no sophisticated digital analytics dashboards. There was no social media telling us instantly whether an audience liked or disliked a programme.

We had instinct, experience, conversations and the courage to experiment. And we had audiences who were willing to come along with us. That is why I think of those years as golden.

Not because everything we produced was perfect, but because the creative ambition was enormous. People were willing to take risks. Producers, writers, directors, actors, anchors and programmers were discovering the medium together. There was a sense that we were not merely making television programmes; we were building an industry.

How Zee Changed Indian Television

The significance of Zee therefore goes beyond the programmes themselves. It was the window through which India entered the world of private satellite television. It demonstrated that an Indian-language network could build a large audience, attract advertising, create stars and develop formats that could stand alongside international television.

Thirty-four years later, the scale of the business is almost impossible to compare. Television has expanded into a vast ecosystem, while streaming platforms, digital video, social media and other technologies have multiplied the opportunities for creators. Audiences are fragmented across thousands of choices, and Indian content travels around the world in ways we could hardly have imagined in 1992.

And yet, strangely enough, I find myself looking at the present and recognising something familiar. The creative opportunity is expanding again. The difference is that this time the windows are everywhere.

A New Golden Era For Indian Content

A young creator no longer needs to wait for a television network to commission a programme. A writer can find an audience independently. A filmmaker can reach viewers across countries. A performer can build a following without first becoming part of a traditional studio or television system. New businesses are emerging around content, technology and community.

In that sense, perhaps the golden period is not something we should only remember. Perhaps it is something that can happen again.

What I remember most about October 1, 1992 is not the machinery of the launch. I remember the people. I remember the excitement of not knowing exactly what would happen next. I remember Mohan Kapur discovering what an Indian television anchor could become. I remember Adi Pocha taking creative risks. I remember Ronnie Screwvala understanding that a good idea could become a business. I remember Dr Subhash Chandra trusting a team enough to let us experiment.

And I remember the extraordinary privilege of being there at the intersection of all these energies. We were creating something for an audience that had already been taught, through Doordarshan, to expect good storytelling. We had to rise to that expectation rather than underestimate it.

Looking Back At Zee TV, Looking Ahead

On October 1, 1992, we opened a window. What came through it changed Indian television forever. Today, as the business expands many times over and new generations of creators discover possibilities we could never have imagined, I find myself looking through another window.

The view is different. But the feeling is remarkably familiar. And perhaps that is why, after all these years, I can still say with a smile: we were contemporary then. And we are contemporary still.  

WATCH THIS INTERVIEW OF KARUNA SAMTANI BY VINTA NANDA IN THE PODCAST #BMGT (BE MY GUEST TODAY!)