Connecticut to the north ; and south into New Jersey. The big year for Bombay Broadcasting was 1984. The company added Chicago/Milwaukee to its large viewing audience in September and then in D ecember premiered in Los Angeles/San Diego. In April last year, San Francisco too tuned in, to be joined by Washington , D.C. , in September. That same month , ten mjnutes of news of the subcontinent and 20 minutes for features were added to the New York menu. Earlier tills year, with its expansion into other areas, BBC changed its name to Bombay Broadcasting Network. As expertise and audience have grown, the team has been looking for new stories outside the film industry. Among items that have been featured in the expanded version of "Cinema Cinema" are clothing designer Ralph Laure n's involvement with India, profiles of successful Indians, the story of how Indians and Pakistanis have become owners of 80 percent of the subway newsstands in New York, the Indian takeover of the semiprecious gems and diamond business from the Jewish community in New York, Indians in California 's Silicon Valley-the heart of the U.S. computer industry (see SPAN July 1983)-and even controversial subjects such as battered Asian women. Peter Jennings, a top American TV journalist who was a reporter in Calcutta and Bangkok, spoke in an interview with Raj about "so many wonderful memories.'' It was just the type of feature Bombay Broadcasting wants to do more of, Raj says. The Festival of India provided new challenges to the network. Before the Festival opened , Raj went to Delhi to interview Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. While waiting for the appointment , the enterprising young woman made good use of her time. "I visited the performing artists, the jugglers, acrobats and craftspeople who were scheduled to be part of the Festival. I went to the artists' complex where they were rehearsing, thinking it would be fascinating to do a curtain raiser. It suddenly struck me that no one else was doing this in America. I would go back with the only piece of footage to whet people's appetite. With our coast-to-coast network, we could tell everyone across the United States: 'This is what is going to happen when the Year of rndia starts."' The program was shown in May 1985 and generated a tremendous amount of interest. Meanwhile, Doordarshan was . looking for someone in the United States to cover the Festival for its viewers in India, and "it all tied in well," Raj says simply. "We were there, we were on the air for four years, we had experience. We sent samples of what we had done. So on faith and whatever, Bombay Broadcasting won the go-ahead to produce Festival of India segments for Doordarshan." The coverage included the Festival's opening at the Smithsonian Institution and the inaugural exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. "We were told that our program was watched by 300 million people, a mind-boggling figure, much more than the Superbowl [the American football champio11ship that yearly draws the largest television viewing audience in the United States]." says Raj . Doordarshan has now asked Bombay Broadcasting to send programs o n anything else " we think would be of interest." The company is like one big family. Everyone on the rolls, ranging in age from 22 to 31, pitches in to get the job done. Raj remembers one satellite feed to India that was actually a
24-hour stretch when everyone took turns sleeping on the couch in the reception area. Young Raj is the team's veteran. She arrived in the United States about a decade ago as a graduate student and then, after graduation, moved to New York where she has re latives. It was here that she met her businessman husband and became affil iated with Bombay Broadcasting. After Raj , the member with the longest tenure here is Chris Mendes. In film production in Bombay, he found his way to New York after an assignment in Europe felJ through. Producer , director and cameraman, Mendes, in what appears to be true BBN spirit , also sees to it that the pape r moves smoothly through the teleprompter during newscasts. Anchorwoman Gita Bajaj has been with the network for two years. A former Doordarshan reporter, Bajaj joined the team after getting a masters degree in journalism from the University of Georgia.
T
he newest member is John Dawla from Bangladesh. In New York a few months ago, on holiday from his job as an economics reporter for German television, Dawla tuned in to BBN and was surprised to find how nostalgic he was for news and entertainment from the subcontinent. "Working and living in Germany I didn't realize that I missed home. I guess you could ca II it suppressed nostalgia." Dawla does features and announcing for the network, an upbeat change from his German assignment, which consisted primarily of reporting on the growing poverty problems in Europe. The contrast, however, is not just in the types of stories but also "the homey atmosphere and spirit of cooperation" at Bombay Broadcasting . Visiting the network's office you also get to see the verve, the quick pace and the enthusiasm. People pop in and out holding impromptu conferences over the noisy hammerings of workmen. Indu Krishnan directs a newscast; newsanchor Bajaj films her segment of the show; a tall , blond young man introduced as Eric sits in an editing room. During another visit Sujata Joshi , who started as a summer intern two-and-a-half years ago and stayed, is busy editing a program. For some time, Raj herself slips into Joshi 's seat to lend an editing hand. What Raj likes most about her job is "meeting, talking with and interviewing a wonderfully wide cross section of people." Dawla recalls his surprise at receiving about 25 calls from viewers in an hour or so one Saturday morning after "Cinema Cinema" was a ired. "There are people out there watching and interested enough to call,,. he says. There were questions, criticism and encouragement not only from the Indian callers but from Americans and listeners from non-Indian immigrant groups as well. What does the future hold for this enterprising group? '¡r would love to produce programs for India ," Raj says. " Festivals of India will come and go, but I have found that India has an enormous reservoir of good will in the Un ited States, among the real movers and shakers, be they in fashion , politics o r business. India has touched Americans on many levels and in many ways. There is now so much that we can draw on for stories. I'm excited about the possibilities this gives us for Bombay Broadcasting." D About the Author: Judy Aita is a SPAN correspondent in New York.
SPAN JULY 1986
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