Mumbai media professionals head for Jakarta

MUMBAI: When Jogi Dayal, TV director and Mumbai production house veteran, first arrived in Jakarta, he found himself getting lost in translation. “I had an assistant who would relay my directions from English to Bahasa (the local language), but there was no way to directly communicate with the cast and crew.” So, he would end up acting out his instructions to the technicians as well as the artists.

No mean task, considering that the serial under production was heavily inspired by the 1980’s blockbuster, Nagin. While Sridevi’s iconic snake dance may have been too much to ask for, Dayal must have made some good moves, going by the show’s popularity.

“We even got special songs composed for the show in Mumbai,” recalls Dayal. The lyrics were in Hindi, with Bahasa subtitles, but “no one really cares what they are saying as long as they see people singing and dancing around.” 

Forget Hollywood. Mumbai’s media crowd has found a new market for its talents closer home in Indonesia. In a quiet exodus of sorts, some of the city’s brightest writers, directors and technicians have been making inroads into Jakarta’s booming TV industry, churning out hits that rule the ratings.

“We write in English,” says Subrat Sinha, screenwriter, “and then the script department translates it. A lot is lost in this process, but writers have to learn the art of detachment.” On paper, the dual language system works rather neatly, with the page being split into English and Bahasa lines. On location, things can get more muddled. “My husband was once doing a horror show and asked for a big bat inside a cave,” says Gul Khan, director. “Instead, he got a big double bed.” 

Khan left a flourishing career in Mumbai for Jakarta, attracted by the idea of working in a different environment. Given the young nature of the market — from 14-18 year olds - there are less of the saas-bahu sagas and more high school romances and comedies. But while the packaging may be different, says Khan, the levels of drama remain high.

Plot lines typically include young lovers parted by feuding families, duplicate heroes separated at birth and the inevitable characters who return from the dead. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the storylines are a heady cocktail of various Bollywood blockbusters, says Sinha. A variation on the theme is to copy popular Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese TV shows, sometimes frame to frame.

“But one good thing this trend has done is to establish the fact that viewers are ready for different kinds of stories,” he says. Khan explains, “Shows don’t last longer than 100 episodes here, so there is always space to try something new.” Despite the cultural affinities, the move from Lokhandwala to Jakarta is not always smooth. “People here are very relaxed, there is none of the focussed energy of Mumbai,” says Khan. “They forget to get the tape to the shoot and then sit around and play the guitar as they wait.”

“You can’t shout at the unit in the same way as you do back home,” says Dayal nostalgically, “especially since people here are very gentle and get hurt by such behaviour.” The big incentive for the Mumbaikars, used to chasing producers for their money, is getting their pay cheques on time. “There is no channel interference,” says Sinha, “and you save a lot of heartache by getting timely payments.” 

However, points out Anil Pandey, the high cost of living in the city can erode such advantages. “Even though you earn more there, it’s so expensive you can’t make ends meet,” says the writer, who returned after a year. Nevertheless, he has pleasant memories of Jakarta as a “sinful, psychedelic city” with no traffic issues and an unexpectedly vibrant nightlife. “It is a unique mix of western and Islamic lifestyles,’ says Khan. “Very devout, yet very cosmopolitan.” 

But the magnetic pull of Mumbai is never too far, and Sinha often thinks of returning to resume his flourishing career as lyricist and writer. Dayal though, has put down deeper roots during his four years in the country, mostly through marriage to one of the Indonesian actresses from the Naagin serial. “I don’t know if and when I will return to Mumbai,” he says, “This is a nice place for now.”

Pandey, however, is happy to be back in the throbbing heart of Maximum City. “Jakarta can’t match the kind of exposure you get here,” he says. But with its easy availability of work and relaxed lifestyle, he adds, “it may be a good retirement plan.”