It incorporates exclusive moments with many celebrities and award winning directors. Join the actors on their sets as they perform for television and learn about the stories that made the shows come to life. Covering artistes and makers who impacted our world, such as Amitabh Bachchan, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Sai Paranjpye, Basu Chatterjee, Kundan Shah, Ravi Chopra, Ramesh Sippy, Farouque Shaikh, Aziz Mirza, Gulzar and Govind Nihalani.

The book is in all probability, the first ever story of Indian television. Besides taking one down memory lane, this could be a throw-back for all those connected with the medium, past and present. It gives you a feeling of travelling through time and watching history being made -behind the scenes.

That is what draws me to this book, appropriately titled, as it narrates the story of a memorable era. Technology has always played a key role in redefining the media, as I reconciled with changing times.

Of course, the paradigm shift-from the cinema screen to a 20-inch monitor-was difficult for most of the popular film stars of the 1980s to reckon with. They were wary, wanted to test waters before making lip their mind. In my case, the migration was a studied and calculated one.

Initially, the idea to make a dance-based drama was conceived as a classic film. But then the material couldn't be confined to a two- hour screen time and so, the clarion call of television was heeded. I decided to take the plunge as a producer-director-actor in my first foray into television, Noopur. In the journey of the girl who discovered the world and relationships through her love for dance, That is where Once Upon A Prime Time comes in. Incidentally, the author played a pivotal role, that of one who chronicled my life, in Noopur. It was also the first time we ever met and worked together.

I am glad that Ananth took the initiative to put on record this commercial phase of television that was dominated by stalwarts for nearly two decades. Like film negatives, these memories too need to be restored and archived for posterity, as they tell many an untold tale worth cherishing.

Having run parallel to the television industry ever since the inception of sponsored programmes in 1983, Ananth's innings has been a long and unbroken oriel.

The book reads like an autobiography, but covers every major player who was responsible for the nostalgia that Indian television now evokes. Even as a lot of new candidates jumped in to get a piece of the pie, the medium attracted prominent film figures. Culzar, Basu Chatterji, Yash Chopra, Ramanand Sagar, Ramesh Sippy, Sai Paranjpye, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, B R Chopra and Shyam Benegal, to name a few. They all had stories to tell, in a style quite different from their big screen 'successes.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages