"Producing fiction shows is a 365-day job": Sunjoy Waddhwa, Sphereorigins

Sunjoy Waddhwa, CMD, Sphereorigins, the production house that has recently taken over several projects including Saraswatichandra, shares interesting details about such takeovers.

It's rare for a television fiction show to be identified with its director or production house. For the audience, which identifies each fiction show by the characters and the actors who play the roles, change of an actor could be news within hours. However, the news of a change in the production house barely reaches the viewers. Nonetheless, changing the production house mid-way is no longer a rare phenomenon. Noted film producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali's first television project Saraswatichandra (Star Plus) was recently handed over to the new production house Sphereorigins, which is credited with the success of projects like Balika Vadhu.

Saraswatichandra was averaging at 4293 TVTs and has marginally grown to 4574 TVTs in 10 weeks after the Sphereorigins takeover. The show clocked 5730 TVTs in Week 1 of 2014.

In fact, of the few shows that have been handed over to new production houses till date, four have been bagged by Sphereorigins, including Mohe Rang De, Simply Sapne and Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand.

Other production houses have taken over projects such as Baba Aiso Var Dhoondo, Mata Ki Chowki and Jhansi Ki Rani.

Sunjoy Waddhwa, chairman and managing director, Sphereorigins gives his views on what goes on behind the scenes when a production house is brought into the picture, mid-way:

I was asked by the channel if I would be willing to take over the show as it had some issues with the earlier production house. The complete transition was done by the channel, so we didn't have to get into the specific issues between the two.

The show is based on a renowned book and has considerable literary appeal. Also, it's a very young show. I thought it has a lot of potential and can go on for more than a year, if made properly. When we took over, it had done barely 150 episodes and was obviously a business opportunity. The intellectual property of the show still lies with the channel.

It's a misconception that Saraswatichandra was the costliest show on television. No doubt it had one of the most expensive sets on TV, then. Otherwise, production costs are at par with, say, Balika Vadhu.

The grandeur will definitely continue; in fact, we have refurbished the whole set and look wise, it is a notch up. It did take a few weeks to get the changes on track. Content wise, we had made a story line for 3-4 months initially. We have had about 10 high points, which has taken up the TRPs to a good 2.9 as well. The new refurbished set has also got very good response. We are convinced about what we have worked out and we just have to see how it turns out.

Along with a new director for the show, we have uplifted the technical crew. I think it is important that the audience knows the production house for a show because the brand value of the production house can be associated with the show. So yes, Balika Vadhu and xyz shows are produced by Sphereorigns and they are taking over Saraswatichandra, a fact that might make a difference to the viewers. There is a certain expectation. They would associate our older product to the newer one.

Generally, the contracts for shows are for one year/260 episodes/52 weeks. It's not very normal to change the production house for a show. It has happened to us four times, but four times in the last 10 years is not regular!

On the other hand, there are a lot of challenges but I am pretty much used to it since this is the fourth one, starting from Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand, which I took over from Aruna Irani about eight years ago.

Starting your own show is something that starts from your conviction. The energies while starting off a show are different. I think taking over is the difficult part because you are handed over a show where some things aren't right. You are going into a mindset which has already been conceived (in terms of the viewers). It's like entering a zone that's not yours. Because the show is on while all the transition happens, problem solving also has to be taken care of. There were a lot of loose ends in this one (Saraswatichandra) too and it took time.

When you are making your own show, you start from the beginning and you know and expect the problems from the beginning. But here, new ones keep erupting while you are learning, editing, shooting and telecasting episodes. The show is already on and there is a certain acceptability and demand from the viewers that you have to fulfil. You hardly get 3-4 days time to produce the first episode before the transition, so there is no time for learning. Everything is on-the-job.

For Saraswatichandra, we took over on Wednesday, started shooting on Thursday and Tuesday's episode was ours.

This haste might be because all's always on the go in daily fiction shows. For fiction shows, nothing can stop. Real time shooting isn't a good idea, I think. The industry is somehow caught in that loop. Currently, we have one or two episodes in the bank but that's still not a good situation. Ideally, a channel should have about seven to eight episodes shot and ready and something being shot today should be telecast say a fortnight from now. This gives you enough time to make changes and cope with unexpected situations.

Fiction production is a very different ball game from film production or non-fiction production. Within fiction, daily soap is another leg altogether. One can be creatively strong, but producing that creative output every single day is a challenge. Films shoot for about 40-45 days; however, this is a 365 -day job. Plus, there are strict deadlines. You can't say for any reason that a day's episode can't be produced. It's not acceptable. You have to attune yourself to that cycle and you have to give that much timeline.