It was the year 1980. Yakub Sayed, then assistant director at Mumbai Doordarshan, now called DD Sahyadri, received a phone call. It was to inform him that actress Nargis Dutt, who was in New York for medical treatment after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, had passed away. He informed his director, and a call was made to the I&B Ministry, which then connected with the Prime Minister’s office.

“We were informed that PM Indira Gandhi is on her way to Bombay and somebody should go to the airport to let her know the news. I was given this task. I went along with my cameraman. Just as she [PM Gandhi] began descending the airstair, I asked the cameraman to start shooting. When I informed Mrs Gandhi, she said that she was deeply saddened at the news. But it was a small reaction. To get more, I decided to pay a visit to Dev Anand’s office, which was in the vicinity. After I had broken the news to him, he offered us a long byte. To make it a whole package, I decided to pay a visit to Sunil Dutt’s home, hoping to get a reaction from the househelps and drivers. But once I reached there, I saw Sanjay Dutt having tea with his friends, laughing. I asked the cameraman to stay put and decided to ask him about his mother and he said, she is doing better,” Sayed tells mid-day between laughs. 

By the time he had reached DD’s Worli office, everyone had heard what had happened. “I behaved like I didn’t know. They told me I must pay Mrs Gandhi a visit and confess the blunder because she had already offered her condolences at a meeting that day. I refused, saying, I would rather resign than tell her that… she was known to have a temper. Someone else was given the task and I am sure a few people lost their jobs that day.”

A year later, when a call came saying Nargis Dutt had passed away, Sayed took a taxi and went to Breach Candy Hospital where she was admitted. It was only after he saw a crowd of mourners that he was convinced that the news was in fact, true. “But, it was a Sunday. So, everyone was on chhutti. I went to her brother Anwar Hussain asking if he had the reel of her last film, Raat Aur Din. He had the negatives. I got them developed, and that’s what we aired that evening,” recalls Sayed, now 88. “The viewers, I heard, loved that telecast.”

Mumbai Doordarshan completed 50 years last Sunday. Sayed, who was present at the ceremony held at its Worli studio, served the public service broadcaster from 1972 to his retirement in 1992, when he left as director of Doordarshan Kolkata, or DD Bangla.

We met him on a weekday afternoon in Bhiwandi where he put up for the day in an ancestral home that belongs to his daughter and son-in-law. “I moved here from Kurla because my daughter thinks I am too old to live by myself,” he says.

Over the next hour, Sayed takes us on a journey through the initial years of Mumbai Doordarshan, sharing anecdotes that shaped his life. This, however, wasn’t his first job. After a Master’s in Arts degree from Pune University, Sayed bagged a job at All India Radio. “It was after working there for a decade that I was told I have been selected for television and would have to undergo a six-month training at FTII [Film and Television Institute of India],” he says, of the broadcaster when it had just about 100 employees.  

“Since Bombay was catering to the Marathi-speaking population, about 80 per cent of our content was in Marathi. The most popular among this were the Marathi plays. On Saturday, we would show a 2.5 hour-long play which enjoyed better viewership than films; Maharashtrians love their theatre.”

Sayed directed and produced 180 plays himself, including the popular Dinucha Sasubai and Radhabai, Shyamchi Aai, Sharda, Naukri and Piano. “In fact, during the broadcast of Piano—a love story where a female piano player plans to elope with her lover after a performance but cannot—I got a call from Raj Kapoor asking about the actress. He asked me to send her to his office and she was offered the role of heroine in his film; she however, refused saying she was to get married. The film was Prem Rog; the role eventually went to Padmini Kolhapure.”

Another play that Sayed worked on, Beimaan, the story of two friends, was also turned into a film. “Hrishikesh Mukherjee made it into Namak Haraam in 1973 starring Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.”

Besides theatre, Sayed says shows that enjoyed large audience include a children’s shows called Khilbil; a light entertainment programme Garba that focussed on small skits; Aamchi Maati Aamchi Manasa which tackled challenges faced by farmers; a show revolving around home called Sundar Maze Ghar; a comedy called Has Parihas and a chat show featuring the legendary Tabassum, Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan.

“Tabassum’s Phool Khile Gulshan Gulshan [which aired until 1993] was then what Koffee With Karan is today. She interviewed top actors and musicians show from Prem Nath to Amitabh Bachchan, RD Burman, Shatrughan Sinha and Ashok Kumar, some even multiple times… only Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar refused saying they aren’t comfortable being interviewed by someone who was younger to them,” Sayed recalls.

For one of the shows, he turned actor, bringing him public fame. “In one of the meetings, we discussed the need for a comedy programme. The arrow pointed at me. I thought everybody who picks up newspapers does read a joke, why not enact them on television? The show was called Has Parihas. It began in 1973 and became very famous… Mahmood, Jeetendra, Daboo [Randhir Kapoor], everybody came on the show. Lata [Mangeshkar] would also request for jokes… It gave me a lot of fame,” he says, adding, “You know who was my biggest fan? Morarji Desai. He once asked me to meet him, saying he always calls for my tapes and watches them. He even asked why the show was shut down.” After airing for three years, the show stopped after his co-actor on the show Baban Prabhu passed away.

Interestingly, television was still in a nascent stage and those who had TV set at home struggled with its operation. “Once I got a call from a minister, asking me to come over to his residence. Because he was an important man, I dropped everything and went across. He told me his TV was not working. I was no engineer. I asked his staffer to go to the roof and continue to gently move the antenna till I asked him to stop. When it was adjusted enough to sit parallel to the TV, the set came on.” In return as a goodwill gesture, the politico agreed to come on Kilbil as guest.  

But Sayed’s favourite story is from the inaugural day of Mumbai Doordarshan—October 2, 1972. “At around 6 pm, we realised that the hustle-bustle that should have marked the arrival of the chief minister was missing. On calling his secretary, we were told that his diary had a wrong date entry. The event that should have started at 6.30 pm was delayed; this irked Bismillah Khan [shehnai maestro], who had to miss his evening namaz. Then a cup broke in the green room and hurt Asha Parekh’s foot and she started to bleed. I went downstairs to find a doctor. To top it all, we ran the programme live but forgot to record it. DD Mumbai does not have a recording of its debut broadcast.”

Yakub Sayed with actress and television host Tabassum whose chat show Phool Khile Gulshan Gulshan was very popular and saw the presence of every prominent actor and musician

Yakub Sayed with popular Marathi actress Neena Kulkarni, who began her career in the 1970s with theatre

l

Yakub Sayed and his co-actor on the show Has Parihas, Baban Prabhu with Amjad Khan