Artistes of Panchamaveda Natya Sanstha stage a play BPL Entertainment Channel at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 3: A play that focused on malpractices of the regional media was in the spotlight during the annual day celebrations of Bhubaneswar-based cultural organisation Panchamaveda. The play titled was staged at Rabindra Mandap on Monday and Tuesday.

Titled BPL Entertainment Channel, the play was about this fictitious Odia TV channel that had to shut down after it failed to elevate its TRPs. It had satirical undertones and the treatment of the subject was subtle.

The play began with a regional television channel, called BPL Entertainment Channel, wishing to go hammer and tongs to increase its viewership. Chairman of the channel Suresh Pani holds a meeting and seeks advice of his staff. In his team, he has a young director, a sycophant actress and a lecherous manager among others.

After several deliberations they come to the conclusion that they should select a Telugu serial and make its rip-off. They also plan to bring all kinds of elements to sensationalise the serial to draw the attention of the viewers.

The crew also selects a scriptwriter for the job. However, after it goes on air, the viewers reject the serial outright and the corporation incurs heavy losses. As a consequence, they decide to shut down the company.

The play ends showing that since no one in the management team had any sense of aesthetics, they couldn’t judge the taste of the audience.

The play was full of humorous scenes, which left the audience in splits. Though a few characters fumbled at times while delivering their dialogues, but it was pardonable.

“The play depicted the dire consequences that people face, who have little knowledge and expertise in the field of art and culture and use all gimmicks to make it big. Lack of artistic vision and business acumen couldn’t bring them success,” said Haren Sahoo, who conceptualised the play and was seen in a major role.

The play was directed by Prakash Maharana and written by Shankar Tripathy. Asim Basu did the art direction while Pratap Rout composed the music.