Producing daily soap is not my forte: Fireworks Productions' B.P. Singh

He is the man behind the longest running weekly crime thriller on Indian television - CID. While he may have ventured into other genres like horror – with Aahat on Sony Entertainment Television and comic series Gutur –Gu on SAB TV, B.P Singh is known for his extensive efforts in keeping CID alive.

In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, B.P. Singh, Fireworks Productions shared his interest, trends in the TV industry and future plans and more...

Singh began his television career as a news camera man for Doordarshan. “Suring my stint at DD, I gradually developed a passion of being a director." Singh joined Doordarshan in the year 1973, where he also made a film Sirf Char Din- a murder mystery for Doordarshan and Shunya Shunya too.

Sharing the story behind the concept of CID, Singh said, “Those days things used to be executed very differently. To gather information for ‘Sirf Char Din’, I used to visit Crime Branch of Police and in that process I developed interest in detective work and that is when I started to play with the idea of CID".

CID entered Indian homes more than a decade ago. Sharing as to what could be the possible factors that led to it becoming the longest running show on Indian television, Singh opined, “I think everyone, right from the cast to storytelling and our writers to production team have made this show work. We've tried to evolve with the time and made series accordingly".

As mentioned earlier, while Singh may have tried his hands at other genres, his love for crime/thriller genre brings him back to where he began. Recently, Singh has also produced crime show with Life OK titled Hum Ne Li Shapath and is now co-producing the newly launched Laut Aao Trisha. “Daily soaps are not my forte, my interests lies in crime and thriller”, he added.

Being part of the industry for more than a decade, citing some trends that he has witnessed and been a part off, Singh said, “The pace at which TV in India is changing is faster than any other place in the world. Everyone has to be part of the changing time; one who will not is going to be left behind. And today the kinds of experiments we are see on TV channels across languages, geographies and genres are the result of the new change."

In recent past we have seen television adapting new formats and genres. While few of them worked well and the others failed. "Adapting international concept provides immense opportunities for broadcasters but to make the concept appealing to Indian audience require certain tricks and strategies that not all in the game can understand and adopt”, he shared.

Concluding the conversation on a positive note, Singh stated that while there are no specific plans for CID, the show is not going anywhere till the viewers continue to watch and enjoy the show”.

The production house is in talks with Star Plus for two new shows in the crime / thriller genre, expected to be launch next year.   [By Ranjana Gupta| Twitter: @RGrightsreserve]