A conversation with Shashi Ranjan about How ITA started

Indian Television Academy Awards, also known as ITA Awards is an annual awards ceremony organized by the Indian Television Academy to honor excellence in Hindi-language television. It was started in the year 2001. ITA held its first awards ceremony in November 2001, and this year i.e. in 2023, ITA held its 23rd ITA Awards ceremony. ITA was started by Shashi Ranjan and his wife Anu Ranjan. ITA honors the best artists on television every year. Let us tell you what Shashi Ranjan said about how he started ITA and how was the journey...

ITA has become like the brand it is today, how did the idea of starting a television award come to your mind, would you like to say something about it?

It was in 2000, when Anu and I went to a film award function, when we were entering there, some of our television friends were also with us. When we were going inside, people there said that film people should go in front and TV people should stay behind, and Anu did not like this because her friend who was with her was from the TV industry. Anu told me that I would sit with them, you go ahead and sit. This thing had a great impact on Anu's mind. When we came back from that function, she talked to me about this and said that it is very unfair that television is viewed with such an inferiority, and we should do something about it. One day she came to me and said, “I think we should do something for Indian television because there are many platforms for cinema but there are no platforms for television, we should do something about it.” With this idea, we started talking to other people like Mahesh Bhatt, Shatrughan Sinha, Rajat Sharma, Peter Mukherjee, and Kunal who was in Sony Television at that time, Rajnayak who was in Star Channel, we talked to the stalwarts of television. , told them about my idea, and asked them what they thought about it. Everyone said that it was a great idea, especially Peter Mukherjee, he said that this is quite a revolutionary idea, and it should be done. Together we formed a Governing Council consisting of fifteen people from television channels, and with everyone's consent, we created the Indian Television Academy, similar to the Emmy Awards, which was inaugurated in 2001 by the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilas Rao Deshmukh. At this time everyone from the television industry was present. Everyone realized that this was a very revolutionary step, and this had never happened before in India, even now India does not have any Academy Awards. When we started it, we felt that we could now promote television through this. We conducted workshops and seminars on various issues related to television, in which we talked about everything from TRP to content and marketing. The idea behind doing this work was to bring the entire television industry under one roof so that they could all talk to each other and understand each other better. After that we thought that everyone has their awards, so there should be an exclusive award for television too. When we talked to people about this, they asked who would watch the television awards, and what would show in them, film awards have songs and stars. In those times, television people did not know much about dance, etc., and only Doordarshan was running at that time, and Star had newly come to the market. Although there are television people in reality shows, at that time there was no one like that. The star said that if you do this then we will telecast it on our channel, and we will be associated with you for three years. When all this happened, Anu had come to meet Hero Honda owner Pawan Munjal. Pawan Munjal was also a man of vision, he said, “This idea is very good, and I will be your sponsor for the next five years.” They didn't even know what was going to happen. No one knew what the outline of this award would be, we too were wondering what would happen. One thing we had decided was that we would not bring film people into this. At that time, the creative head of Star was Sameer, he said that let's call Shahrukh Khan, people will be attracted to him. We said that they would give awards to our actors but they would not perform. We will invite them as a guest. If we make film people the jury, our television actors will start looking inferior to them, and I will not let that happen. There was a dispute between us regarding this matter, it reached such an extent that he even said that he would not be able to do it because he cannot invest so much money just like that. He used to ask us repeatedly that even if you do entertainment, what kind of entertainment will you do? We used our brains a little and then we decided that comedy is the strength of television. Then we decided that we would make a one-hour show in which every ten minutes there will be a small act performed by famous people on television, like Shekhar Suman, Mandira Bedi, and Rakesh Bedi. We then thought that we would make a song that would be the anthem of television. I talked to Javed Akhtar about that television anthem. Javed Saheb said that this idea is very good, and he will write it. Shankar-Ehsaan Loy gave its music, Kain Ghosh shot it. There is a record in the Guinness Book that 74 top television actors have appeared in one song. When the song was shot, we said that we would perform this song also. We asked Farah Khan for the choreography of the song, and she agreed. I told her that I would give her fifty actors. I still remember doing it in Reneshaw Pawai. Apart from the television actor, there was only one other performance which was that of Adnan Shami. Actors like Madhuri Dixit, Raveena Tandon, Shatrughan Sinha, and Sanjay Dutt were also present during the function. Sushma Swaraj was also present there as chief guest. Veteran people like Ramanand Sagar and Uma Vasudev were also present there. I don't think anyone had organized such a big show and such a big party under one roof.

What do you think is the reason behind the ITA Award getting so much love? People's love for it so much, it is increasing day by day, what would you like to say about it?

There are two to three very important things. Actually, after us, other people have also tried to create a television award. From day one I was very clear that credibility is very important. Credibility is very important. The actor should not feel that the one who goes gets the award, and the one who does not go does not get the award. We have struggled a lot to maintain people's trust. We have also had legal issues with a producer, we have even left the channel if necessary. ITA is such an award that does not come on any one channel, it comes on every channel. Every year it comes on different channels. One reason for this is that we want to be fair. Neither do we favor anyone nor do we come under anyone's pressure. And this is what attracted people to us. People started feeling that going to ITA increased their respect. People come to our award functions, when we did this awards function in Indore, ten thousand people came, and people believe that this is a fair award.

You said that there was a legal matter if you want to share something about it?

It was a big thing, I don't want to talk about it. He was a big producer at that time, and he forced us to give an award to one of his favorites, and he did not allow that actress to perform on the day of the show. Many channels forced us to give awards to their favorite artists. We never listened to him and we left the channel. This did not happen once, it happened two to three times. Once it happened that the channel was finalized, they forced us for something at the last minute and we left the channel, after that, the problem was that only two months were left before the award but we did not have any channel. After that I met Pawan Munjal ji, I told him that this time we do not have a channel, I told him the whole thing, and then he asked what to do next, I said sir, I will put it on cable TV, run it on Doordarshan. I will give but I will not work with this channel because these people are attacking our roots, and I will not tolerate this. He said, even if it is telecast only on cable, I am with you. Just him saying this, I got motivated, and after that, we did that show with a big channel. In these 24 years, we faced many difficulties, but we never gave up. This is the reason why more than 1.5 crore people vote every year in the entire country. We interact with people on our page, we keep posting something or the other on it throughout the year. It is a matter of happiness that we have a direct connection with the public. Our TRP does not come because of the channel, all the credit for it goes to us. No matter which channel we are on, our TRP is the highest. The show 'Jubilee' which came on OTT, its actor Aditi Rao Hydari is the winner of a category, the award was on the 10th, she came to us and said that I am not on the 10th, so we said no one, your award reached you. Will give. She called Anu and said ma'am, I have not seen such an award, whenever I have said during any award that I will not be able to come during that award function, that award is given to someone else. These are the little things that people remember.

I have seen that you also invited some actors who have not worked in any series for a long time for any show.

From the very first year, it was clear to us that we had to worship our roots. How television originated in India, we had to start from there. Television in India started with Ramayana and Mahabharata and started with Doordarshan. I invited every producer and director to my first function and gave them special honor. I believe that one should always respect one's roots and always remember those who started television. I do not believe that what is seen is what is sold.

Your daughters have also made a name for themselves in this industry, and have created their own identity, how do you feel?

I believe that a girl is no less than any boy. And I have raised them like this. I have taught them that you can do anything. Whatever your passion, follow it, and I will support you as a father. You become independent. Whatever she does in life today, most of it is her own decision. I have told them that it is not necessary that every decision of yours is right, many decisions can also be wrong, so you do not have to worry about it, because we are human and humans make mistakes, and after all, we all learn by our own mistakes. So let's learn. I am happy that they are doing well.

Anu ji's support has been very important in this journey, what would you like to say about it?

She comes from a very different background, she did not live in India, but she lived in Los Angeles when I got married. She came to India after our marriage. She did not know much about the entertainment industry here. The only thing she knew about me was that I had been a model for Vico Vejradanti. When she came here, she said that I do not want to just be a housewife, I also want to do something of my own. After that she started her own garment business, she used to export Indian garments to foreign countries. At that time I had a lot of work in film and TV production. Let me tell you that Anu's marketing sense is very good. And so one day I said to her why don't you join me, and after that, we started working together. Initially, I used to work as a creative person and she used to work as a marketing person. And like this, things kept happening one after the other. Television did not have a magazine of its own. When the talk about it started, the owner of India Today had said that who would buy this magazine, when magazines with the cover pages of both Shahrukh Khan and Neena Gupta are available for just fifty rupees, then people would buy Shahrukh. He said that he had also started a magazine but it had flopped miserably. So I told him, Sir, you might have come at the wrong time, but I have come at the right time, because when your magazine came, television was not so popular, but today television is quite famous. He said try, but don't waste too much money. We said that if the television magazine comes, it will not be a thin yellow one, it will also be as glossy as the ones in the films. We got special shoots done so that our actresses also look as glamorous as film actresses. We then launched Great Magazine which ran for twelve years. There was a standalone magazine which was very difficult to sell but we did it. There was a single magazine of that time in which we covered all the stories of today's Minister Smriti Irani from her early days, her marriage, and the birth of her child.

You have also been associated with Mayapuri Magazine, would you like to tell us about some memories related to it?

I have an old acquaintance with Mayapuri. I am from a small town Bhiwani, Haryana that is where I was brought up. I had a great desire for films, I was lucky that we had a screen in our house because my father was interested. The magazine we could afford was Mayapuri, this magazine was available everywhere, and we used to see our favorite actors there. These are my memories. We all used to read the stories of films through Mayapuri Magazine while sitting inside the small town.

What would you like to say to the fans who love you so much?

All I would like to say is that try to keep this love lasting. We will try from our side, you try from your side. We would love it if more and more people would join us.

Tags : shashi-ranjan | ita-award 

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