The vigilance report named the Kairam Group, Manish Shah’s Group of companies, Dheeraj Sabharwal Group, Shemaroo Group, and Yashraj group, all of which provide films to DD.
An internal report of Prasar Bharati on the chain of procuring films for Doordarshan slots has indicted the public broadcaster for encouraging cartelisation, top DD officials told dna.
The vigilance report named the Kairam Group, Manish Shah’s Group of companies, Dheeraj Sabharwal Group, Shemaroo Group, and Yashraj group, all of which provide films to DD.
There are also certain smaller groups like the Kewal Suri group, Narender Kesar group, Sushil Aggarwal group, Ratan Jain group and Rajshree group. Top DD sources said it is mostly the Kairam Group and the Manish Shah’s group of companies that provide films to DD.
The report states that in the process of procuring films, DD has admitted to the monopolistic situation with six business houses, but did not suggest ways and means to avoid them.
“The hidden fact is that each of these business house has close to 20 firms, which take turns to submit their offers. DD has encouraged cartelisation and in their replies they have totally skirted the issue (sic),” the report states.
“It is not clear how DD has been conveniently shutting its eyes to the monopolistic situation that has been created by taking films only from the six groups,” the report states.
DD telecasts feature films on DD National between Friday and Sunday, with another telecast on Monday. At a Prasar Bharati board meeting in August 2013, the suggestion to streamline the telecasting of films by auctioning slots than buying rights came for a former member (finance) first. He said it would improve revenue and the quality of films.
Subsequently, an agenda for auctioning slots was placed before the Prasar Bharati board at its 118th meeting in November 2013.
The board finally approved the proposed guidelines at its 121st meeting in April 2014.
However, Doordarshan did not implement the board decision, saying the response to the auction was tepid. It was communicated to the Information and Broadcasting ministry as well, which funds Prasar Bharati.
Even the internal committee report stated that DD lacked the will to own the idea of e-auctioning the film slots for reasons best known to them.
A former DD officer told dna that they had received threats from the producers’ lobby. Top DD sources said that, as a result, no procedure was followed by DD while procuring films. “For example Dhoom 2, a Yashraj film, was procured for Rs 8 lakh, while films like Baby and Dharam Sankat Mein were procured for Rs16 lakh. These decisions are arbitrary,” a DD official said.
Data procured by dna showed that Queen was procured for Rs8 lakh and Jai Jawan Jai Kisan for Rs 12 lakh.
The procuring prices of films go down after the first telecast.
“While there was no significant losses, profits could have been far more, had the slots been auctioned,” the official said. The issue was discussed at a Prasar Bharati board meeting on Tuesday.
“It was discussed that applications would be invited once again under the slot-sale policy for TV shows, under which prime time slots of DD National would be auctioned,” an official present at the meeting said.
“Once the policy is streamlined for shows in DD, it is likely be extended to film slots too,” the official said.
Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar said, “I can’t remember the exact details of the report, but we are aware of a cartelisation in DD. Prasar Bharati will soon ensure that a transparent system is brought into place at the next board meeting.” Asked about the next course of action, Sircar said law will take its course.
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