History In The Re-Making

With Porus, Indian Television Is Trying to Create the Big Screen Effect of Baahubali and the Small Screen Wonder of Game of Thrones

- Suhani Singh

TO BE TRANSPORTED BACK TO 300 BC and see Macedonia, Paurav rashtra and Takshashila, all one has to do is to head to Umbergaon. It’s in this small town in the Valsad district of Gujarat, known for its beach and produce of chikoo, that Swastik Productions has chosen to build the sets for Porus, a historical show that revisits the epic battle of Hydaspes (the Greek name for the river Jhelum) between Paurava king Porus aka Por or Purushottam and Alexander the Great aka Sikander in 326 BC. According to Danish Khan, executive vice president of Sony, the brief is to make a show to recreate “the golden age of Indian history on the small screen”. Five weeks into the show, the BARC ratings have averaged 1.0, far behind chart-topping shows such as Yeh Hai Mohabbatein (Star Plus), Kumkum Bhagya (Zee TV) and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma (SAB TV), which garner ratings 3 and above. But Khan says, “We never expected to be on top in the first few weeks. We wanted four weeks to establish the show and gradually develop it. The real action will start now.”

A TRYST WITH HISTORY