News, views and all that

catches up with BAG Films's Anurradha Prasad

A print of Salvador Dali's "Persistence of Memory" graces the wall of the conference room of BAG Films & Media Ltd's Noida office. Waiting in this chamber for my interview with Anurradha Prasad I couldn't help but muse over this little known, art loving aspect of the lady behind chartbusters like Sansani and Kumkum "" Ek Pyaara Sa Bandhan, who has single-handedly, or so it would seem, built a company that today has a market capitalisation of more than Rs 500 crore and, in the last financial year, reported an income of Rs 45.84 crore.

Yes, it is she who chose the print, but Prasad is uncharacteristically coy when pressed on the issue. "I believe in nature, energy...Yes Dali is a favourite but I go through these binges when I like this one artist or that one. Paresh Maity is fabulous, but I generally go for unknown painters...unsung heroes I call them."

In a sense, the wall decorations inside Prasad's office are more in-character "" large, gaudily embellished Tanjore paintings, one depiction of the Buddhist mandala and a very becoming larger-than-life framed picture of herself. But Prasad is candid "" "I am not an art connoisseur. I go by what appeals to the eye and if someone says it is not fashionable, I care a damn."

It's a sentiment Prasad voices once more in the course of the conversation "" when talking about the launch of News24 about a month ago. "Market research said don't do it, it's [the Hindi news channel space] already cluttered, but I said I care a damn."

No, Prasad is not being insouciant, she's just going by something she calls her "inner voice" "" a combination of commonsense and gut feel.

Take her reasoning behind why she chose to launch a 24-hour Hindi news channel just then: "I realised, the way the Hindi news space had developed, all the channels were playing with the credibility of news itself, the reason why discerning Hindi news viewers were moving to English news channels. As I see it, news is anything but entertainment; it works, yes, but in today's competitive environment, the number one, two, three viewer were all doing the same thing. So this was the right time to get into this space, which is why we came up with the concept that 'news is back'."

Makes sense, put that way, and Prasad hastens to add that the market too has given the thumbs up to her channel. But there's more to come from the BAG stable: E24, an entertainment channel devoid of soaps coming up in early March, to be followed later in the year by Life24 on lifestyle, and Bliss24 on wellness matters.

"It's a busy time ahead," says Prasad, dressed in a bright red dress jacket, adding philosophically, "But it's what you've chosen. You become busy when you want to be and don't become busy when you don't..."

With few distractions "" Prasad counts music ("Hindi film"), reading ("from the Harvard Business Review to anything...") and yoga ("off and on") among her leisure activities "" she's in office everyday, "sometimes eight days in the week" (although she confesses to taking it easy in the mornings).

And it is clear that it is this dedication to work, plus propitious timing, that has helped her grow the small production house that she and a few others started in a small apartment in Malviya Nagar in 1993 into a media house that straddles films, radio, education, animation, new media and, lately, television broadcasting.

But there's little of the struggle, the disappointments in the story, as Prasad tells it, of how she, a first generation entrepreneur (albeit one used to the public life as the daughter of senior Bihar politician Thakur Prasad and the sister of the BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad), made it big in the cut-throat world of Indian television.

"God was kind, I knew television...I called up the minister [K P Singh Deo] and said here I am, and here is what I was doing, a video magazine, and bringing out your business magazine, and I want to do something. He said, okay cool, go and meet the DDG. So I went to Doordarshan, going for the first time in that capacity since I used to go there to hand over tapes when I was working for PTI TV, and said here I have a concept (Aaj ki Baat) and I think it'll work. They were starting DD Metro and they were interested." It sounds almost like an adventure.

And one that's still going on, as Prasad strives to build a "360 degree" media company. Even Zindaggi Rocks' (her first Bollywood production starring Sushmita Sen) disappointing turn at the box office is brushed aside as a "learning" experience. Well, unfailing optimism can be a heady thing.