‘Philips Top Ten’ and ‘BPL Oye’

‘Philips Top Ten’
Channel: Zee TV
Years: 1993 to 1999
Hosts: Sonal Dabral, Satish Shah, (various)

© Zee Entertainment
Courtesy: Zeshaan Ejaz

Philips Top Ten was a countdown show of film songs based on weekly sales of audio cassettes and later on CDs. Sonal Dabral was the first host. He left the show soon after a few episodes, though he did well in his short stint. He was a humorous host who sometimes spoke in a Bhojpuri accent. Satish Shah succeeded him; his tenure was longer than Dabral’s. He hosted an episode with the pro-wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage as a special guest during WWE’s (known as WWF at that time) tour of India.

In 1994 there was an interesting battle for the number one slot between two popular songs of the time “Ek ladki ko dekha to aiasa laga” and “Tu cheez badi hai mast mast”, with each song alternating between number one and two from time to time. In the last quarter of the year, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’s album held the coveted spot for roughly six or seven months and was probably dethroned by the 1995 album Raja. Philips Top Ten also had guest hosts from time to time from film actors to singers including Raveena Tandon. It also had a theme song, a sort of a jingle, which was something like this: Number paanch, number char....  gaana number one — Philips Top Ten. (Followed by a musical beat.)

Sometime in 1996 the show’s format changed with the arrival of Pankaj Kapoor and Satish Kaushik as Titu and Tony respectively. It became a mini-sitcom with little emphasis on the countdown songs and more on story-telling. The character’s names were later changed to Nitu and Noni and instead of turbans they had to wear hats following objections from “hurt sentiments” organisations. Regardless of the protests, the show went on; Pankaj Kapoor and Satish Kaushik’s characters became iconic. The show became so popular that they could have turned it into a full-fledged sitcom without the countdown format.

‘BPL Oye’
Earlier known as Oye MTV
Channel: MTV
VJ: Ruby Bhatia, Raageshwari.
Years: around 1993 to unknown.

It started as Oye MTV and was later renamed to BPL Oye by which it became better known in the popular culture. It started around the same time as Philips Top Ten. Instead it was a top-20 countdown show, one-hour long; being from a music channel, the stress was obviously on songs. The song numbers were displayed by beautifully creative videos showing diverse facets of Indian rural and city life.

The VJ, Ruby Bhatia, would also do interviews of people on the streets, asking them questions or opinions on various things. At the end of 1994, they did a multi-hour special covering the top-50 songs of the year, also including interviews of listeners, asking them facetious questions. Like Philips Top Ten, Ek ladi ko dekha and Tu cheez badi hai mast mast took turns for the number-one spot. In one segment, Ruby Bhatia asked people which song they preferred. The response was divided in favour of both songs. One person was asked to sing Ek ladki ko dekha song and he made a mess of the lyrics: Ek ladki ko dekha to aisa laga, ek khilta gulab, ek khilti gulab... That’s all he kept crooning. Raageshwari also hosted the show after Ruby Bhatia. It’s unknown if there was any other VJ apart from the two.

It’s slated on IMDB (an extremely unreliable source for Indian television) that Neelam Kothari was also the VJ but there’s no truth to that. Neelam indeed hosted a music show in 1996 (Ooh La La) but that show was on Star Plus. (She is shown as an MTV video jockey in the movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai but that’s only in the story.)

Trivia: To counter stiff competition from satellite channels, Doordarshan started its own countdown show Superhit Muqabala which also included private albums. At the end of a particular year, they gave themselves an award for the best TV channel of the year. 

‘Commander’: Zee TV

This is where it all began. The first show to be aired on Zee TV was Commander. Ramesh Bhatkar, the veteran Marathi actor, was a perfect fit for the role. He had the talent and charisma to play the iconic detective. He left the show after 103 episodes. Sudhir Mittoo slipped into Commander’s part with ease. He played the eponymous sleuth for a few months. Eventually Ramesh Bhatkar made a return till the end of the series. Both were good in their own ways, the way every actor who played James Bond brought his own touch to the character whilst keeping the essence.

Ramesh Bhatkar
© Sri Adhikari Brothers
Courtesy: Zeshaan Ejaz

Little is known about Commander’s personal life. His last name or for that matter his first name are unknown. It’s likely that Commander is between 35–45 years of age, like James Bond. He lives by himself and is obviously single. There’s no mention of his background or clues to his parents, relatives or any love interest. He has a few close friends with whom he plays tennis. The mystery works well for the character. He has a helper named Tony (played by Sharad Sharma) who carries out the field work and enquiries. There’s a secretary as well who changes from time to time. Commander’s character is uncomplicated and powerful. He is stern but not dour. He is real, grounded, yet charismatic. He is not your average six-pack Joe, he doesn’t have a finely chiselled stubble; he has a strong presence and there’s something about that him that tells you that he is not just another person in the crowd. Ramesh Bhatkar brought that out with ease. He was a wonderful actor who strangely wasn’t seen in any other popular show that time (not that I am aware of). On the other hand, Sudhir Mittoo had a thankless task of fitting into a role made memorable by another actor, but his version of Commander stood out on his own. He mostly dressed in suits and got into more hand-to-hand combats.

Sudhir Mittoo
© Sri Adhikari Brothers

The episodes had no names. Most stories were two episodes long while a few finished in one episode. I am tempted to compile a cast and episode list of Commander but that’s a tall task, which I will reserve for another day. Zee TV has finally uploaded the show on its YouTube channel, though more than 60 episodes are still missing.

Years: 1992-1995.
Producers: Sri Adhikari Brothers.
Runtime per episode: Around 20 minutes (30 minutes with advertisements).
Total Episodes: Likely more than 150.

Season 1: Ramesh Bhatkar (episode number 1 to 104).
Season 2: Sudhir Mittoo (episode number 104 to unknown; probably 15-25 episodes in total).
Season 3: Ramesh Bhatkar (until the final episode).

*Episode 104 showed highlights of a few earlier episodes, followed by an introduction to the new Commander.

Commander theme
Title Song Singers: Annie, Shankar Mahadevan (vocals).

Like most shows of that era, one of the best aspects of Commander was its title music and background score. The theme song was mostly instrumental with minimal lyrics. Annie did a fantastic job singing the song with her long range voice and a touch of western music, complemented well by Shankar Mahadevan’s classically Indian vocals.

Most of the title song can be listened at Zee TV’s official YouTube channel in the following links:

1. From episode 17.
2. From episode 104 (nearly complete version; watch till the end of the video).
3. From episode 2 (tune only).

Hello World

Before the influx of vapid soap-operas with blustering, dissonant background music and tawdry reality shows, there was the golden era of Indian television in the decade of the 90s. Zee TV led the way with the emergence of satellite television in the early 1990s along with Star, MTV etc. Then came Sony, Channel [V], Home TV etc. This blog is my attempt to reminisce the shows, compile episode and cast lists of select programmes of the 1990s.

I would like to thank Swapnil Raj for his guidance. He is an amateur historian of Indian television, whose first exposure to satellite television came after the year 2000, but possesses an immense know-how of that era.

Let the good times roll.