Doordarshan

Doordarshan (DD), India’s public service television broadcaster, founded by the government in 1959. The word Doordarshan, a combination of two Hindi words, door (far) and darshan (vision), translates to “a glimpse of all afar.” It is operated and managed by Prasar Bharati, an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It was India’s sole provider of television programming for more than 30 years, reaching the zenith of its popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. It continues to air shows spanning news, education, sports, and entertainment through its network of 35 national and regional satellite channels.

Humble beginnings

Doordarshan began as an experimental transmission on September 15, 1959, under All India Radio (now called Akashvani) from a studio in Delhi, with a limited broadcast radius of about 25 miles (40 km). Thereafter, broadcasts began twice weekly for about an hour daily, focused mainly on informational and educational content. In 1965 an hour-long news bulletin began airing daily. Krishi Darshan (“A View of Agriculture”), the longest-running television program in Indian history, was launched in 1967 to provide information on farming as part of a pilot satellite-based educational television initiative aimed at rural areas. Doordarshan’s coverage, initially limited to Delhi, was extended to Bombay (now Mumbai) and Amritsar in 1972 and seven other cities by 1975. The television service was split from All India Radio in 1976 and made a distinct entity under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. In 1982 the government invested in antenna-based broadcast infrastructure, and color television sets were imported in bulk ahead of the Asian Games to be held in Delhi that year—one of the first color telecasts in the country. That same year the network began its telecast of news and entertainment programs across the country.

Doordarshan’s golden era

Starting in the 1980s, Doordarshan’s viewership exploded as television sets became widely available and the network expanded its coverage. Aided by its virtual monopoly on television broadcasts in the country until 1991, Doordarshan’s popularity soared with the introduction of privately produced serialized television shows, which were also successful in attracting new advertisers. The network’s first soap opera, Hum Log (1984–85; “We, the People”), followed the lives of a middle-class Indian family, offering moral takeaways and social messages on subjects including family planning, alcoholism, dowries, and women’s education, reinforced by epilogues by Ashok Kumar, one of the earliest film icons of Bollywood in its nascent stage. The show’s popularity helped its sponsor, Nestlé’s Maggi, become a household brand in the country. It set the stage for other socially conscious fiction serials on the network, such as Rajani (1985), which foregrounded women’s and consumer rights, and Nukkad (1986–87; “Street Corner”), an exploration of urban working-class life. Other notable serials included Khandaan (1985; “Family”), whose star-studded cast featured thespians Neena Gupta and Girish Karnad, and Malgudi Days (1986–88; revived for a season in 2006), adapted from the short stories of author R.K. Narayan. The network also aired foreign-made cartoon shows for children, such as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in the 1980s and The Jungle Book in the 1990s.

Discover how ordinary objects work, and expand your understanding of the familiar.

SIGN UP

" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">

Thank you for signing up!"

Back to homepage

By clicking "Sign Up", you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

When mainstream Bollywood movies went through a slump in quality and ticket sales during the mid-1980s, many talents from the film industry, including filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Gulzar, Govind Nihalani, and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, moved to television, producing some of the most impactful series in Indian history, such as Bharat Ek Khoj (1988–89; The Discovery of India), Mirza Ghalib (1988), Tamas (1988; “Darkness”), and Talaash (1992; “Search”). While director Ramesh Sippy struggled to recreate the enduring cultural impact and record-breaking box-office success of Sholay (1975) on the big screen in the 1980s, his serial Buniyaad (“Foundation”) was a massive hit on Doordarshan. The show, which tells the story of a family displaced by the partition of India, was playing on nearly every television screen in the country in 1986.

Doordarshan’s biggest hit came in the form of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan (1987–88), adapted from the Hindu epic. The show became a countrywide sensation and was followed closely by B.R. Chopra’s Mahabharat (1988–90), which was even more ambitious in its scale and another phenomenal success for the network. Airing about the same time, Benegal’s Bharat Ek Khoj was a grounded retelling of 5,000 years of Indian history, condensed into 53 episodes; prominent actors such as Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Ratna Pathak Shah, Tom Alter, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Irrfan Khan portrayed an array of historical figures. Shah Rukh Khan, one of Bollywood’s biggest superstars, made his acting debut in the Doordarshan serial Fauji (1989; “Soldier”) and went on to star in the social drama Circus (1989–90).

Decline in the satellite era

Though Doordarshan’s dominance began to fade in the 1990s, it continued to air a slate of memorable programs during the decade. These included the news program The World This Week (1988–98 [later moved to other networks]), the long-running weekly cultural show Surabhi (1990–2001; “Fragrance”), the Girish Karnad–hosted science program Turning Point (1991–98), the crime series Byomkesh Bakshi (1993–97), family sitcoms Dekh Bhai Dekh (1993–94; “Look, Brother, Look”) and Hum Paanch (1995–99; “The Five of Us”), sociopolitical family dramas Junoon (1994–98; “Passion”) and Swabhimaan (1995; “Self-respect”), and the superhero serial Shaktimaan (1997–2005; “Power Man”).

India’s economic liberalization in the 1990s opened the doors to private players and satellite television broadcasts through cable networks. In the face of growing competition and increasing reliance on advertising, the network expanded its offerings, including the launch of regional-language channels, a 24-hour news channel, and a sports channel. However, it struggled to match the quality and variety offered by rivals and could not draw enough advertising income. It sold the marketing rights of its well-liked music programs Chitrahaar (1982–) and Rangoli (1989–) and some of its Hindi feature films to shore up revenue. The network lost its exclusive right to broadcast cricket matches in India—a steady source of viewership and advertising—following a legal battle that ended in 1995. Doordarshan has attempted to revive its flagging viewership through the launch of free satellite dish service, a mobile application, and livestreaming on YouTube, but its revenue continues to slide.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

Criticism

While Doordarshan has often been seen as outdated, inefficient, and slow to adapt, by far the most prevalent criticism of Doordarshan and All India Radio is their apparent subservience to ruling governments. Though both broadcasters were removed from direct government control and brought under the autonomous Prasar Bharati in 1997, the government remains a major source of funding, accounting for between 40 percent and 90 percent of Prasar Bharati’s annual income since 2009. Critics claim the government also influences decisions on salaries and appointments, which may undermine the broadcaster’s credibility.

During the 1975–77 national Emergency declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the state-run broadcasters transmitted and reinforced the Indian National Congress government’s agenda. Doordarshan was also accused of underplaying the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 and the Gujarat riots in 2002. In 2024 Doordarshan’s airing of the Kerala Story (2023)—a film about women from opposition-ruled Kerala state being radicalized by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—just ahead of Lok Sabha elections was decried by opposition parties for allegedly endorsing the Hindutva ideology of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The channel was similarly accused of bias when it changed the color of its logo from red to a shade of orange, a color identified with the BJP, though the broadcaster said it was an aesthetic decision, not a political one. Rarely responding to specific claims of partiality, Prasar Bharati has maintained in recent times that the network has successfully provided “balanced, fair and accurate news,” at times alleging that it is Western media’s coverage of Indian issues that has been misrepresentative.