MUMBAI: Political satire Ghadlay Bighadlay, which allegedly provoked NCP party workers into storming the Zee office yesterday, continues to air.
Undeterred, Alpha Marathi, the Zee channel that telecasts the show, will focus tonight’s epiosode on yesterday’s incident. “We are a news channel, just like any other media company our duty is to report and we will continue to do that. People cannot get away with taking the press rights from the media,” says Essel Group’s vice-president, corporate brand development (CBDG) Ashish Kaul.
Says Kaul, “We aired it yesterday as well and will continue with it. Like every other programme on the channel, we have an internal screening process, which is more than enough.” Alpha Marathi business head, who rushed back to Mumbai from Kolhapur yesterday, after hearing about the ransacking, says spoofs on television should be taken in the right spirit, as did the others who were satirised in the same episode.
“Political satires have been on screen for a long time now. Does the attack mean that you have to chuck the satire genre altogether?” Kaul queries.
As for the damage incurred at the Chintamani Plaza offices of Zee, the valuers have already made an assessment of the damage, and the financial estimate of the loss should be available later today. Kaul says the guard who was hospitalised yesterday after he suffered injuries during the ransacking has been declared out of danger; another staffer Carol D’souza is now recuperating at home. As for the rest of Zee staffers, it’s work as usual today.
Meanwhile, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation has condemned the attack on the staff and office of Zee TV, saying it is an attack on the freedom of expression.
“All the political parties need to appreciate the gravity of such unruly, undemocratic and rowdy behaviour by a group of people, allegedly supporters of a political party. We demand that exemplary punishment be meted out to these people both by the law of the land and the concerned political party so that such shameful incidents do not recur,” the IBF says in a release.
Tag: Chintamani Plaza
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Attackers’ butt of ire continues undeterred on Alpha Marathi
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Zee offices ransacked, staffers hurt
MUMBAI: At least 15 persons, claiming allegiance to the Nationalist Congress Party allegedly broke into the Zee Telefilms offices at Chintamani Plaza at Andheri in suburban Mumbai this afternoon and went on a rampage, injuring a few Zee staffers, according to the broadcaster.
Their ire was directed at the content of last night’s episode of a satirical show Ghadalay Bighadlay which was telecast on Zee’s Marathi channel Alpha Marathi at 10.30 pm. According to Zee officials, the NCP workers first went to the Zee offices in Worli where Alpha Marathi business head Nitin Vaidya tried to pacify them, saying an apology, if required, would be telecast on this afternoon’s news bulletin on the channel.
However, the party workers then reached the third floor office of Zee in Andheri, Mumbai at 1.30 pm and ransacked the place, breaking furniture, and in the process, hurting staffers. One woman had to be hospitalised.
Ghadlay Bighadlay, a half hour daily show, was launched on 1 December this year and portrays regular upheavals in the political and social scenario in a satirical fashion. Vaidya had earlier told indiantelevision.com that the content is regularly vetted internally in the organisation before the episodes are telecast. Earlier episodes include spoofs on America’s capture of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain as well as takes on Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal.
The show had also within the first week, garnered good ratings in major metros in the state as well as elsewhere, averaging a TVR of 1.0.
Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra is scheduled to address a media conference on the incident at 2.30 pm today at the Chintamani Plaza offices of Zee.