Farrukh Dhondy is one of the most prolific Indian origin writers in the world. He writes for Film, TV, books and columns. His productivity is mind-blowing.
He always wanted to be a writer, but his writing career took off when he wrote several short pieces about his experience as a school teacher in London in a multicultural school. It was the 1970s and Farrukh was part of a radical political group- the British Black Panther Movement which ran a weekly newspaper for which I wrote these ‘stories’. The newssheet featured the experience of members in their workplace.
“My stories of happenings in a multicultural school became a regular feature and one day, despite the pieces being published without a by-line (no bourgeois egotism of authorship here!) a publisher from Macmillan’s tracked me down and said he wanted a book of short stories from me. He said, memorably, “an audience for writing about the experience of immigrants to this country exists, but the books don’t.” He was inviting me to be a pioneer of ‘Multicultural literature,’ said Dhondy, indicating a dislike of the term.
He wrote four books for Macmillan.
Then a TV producer asked the Parsee to turn his short stories into a series for the BBC.
“I had quit teaching and trusted myself to earn a living as a writer, and this was a break. Other series followed, situation comedies and dramas. It was 1982 and Britain’s new TV Channel 4 was entrusted by the UK parliament to do programmes that other TV channels, including the BBC had neglected.”
So Channel 4 had recruited a Commissioning Editor for Multicultural programming who would get material about and from the new communities of Britain in every shape and TV genre—documentaries, feature films, drama series, art work, experimentation, sport – anything was possible. The channel featured several of Farrukh’s programmes. He worked as a writer from the outside for it.
“In 1983, the first Commissioning Editor, Sue Woodford, who had commissioned several series from me including the sit-com Tandoori Nights, left for the US with her husband.” Her husband had become a peer and she was now Lady Hollick.
Farrukh continues,
“The Channel needed a replacement and its Chief Executive invited me to lunch at a fancy restaurant, treated me to an expensive bottle of Claret and asked me if I’d take the job and replace Sue. I said I’d never thought of an office job, I enjoyed being a writer and was earning enough that way.
‘You realise that could dry up,’ he said. I couldn’t refuse. I took the job.
I thought I’d stay in the job for two years. I stayed for fourteen! Channel Four gave the Commissioning Editors absolute leeway. We were assigned budgets according to the bids we made for them and were then left to spend the millions on programming as imaginatively as we could. The editorial freedom allowed me and my colleagues to drive a wedge of creativity into Mainstream TV.”
Channel 4 pioneered a new era in TV in Britain and influenced Channels around the world.
Farrukh determined that his programming would not be about anti-racism or about ‘positive images’ of Black and Asian people. “That would bore the public. So I commissioned a provocative current- affairs and international news series called The Bandung File whose editors were the radical journalists and activists, Tariq Ali and Darcus Howe. I also set out to pioneer a different sort of subcontinental film – not Bollywood and not ‘art.’ So I commissioned the first feature films of Mira Nair, of Deepa Mehta, of Jamil Dehlavi and’‘Bandit Queen;’ the first international film of Shekhar Kapur.”
The government and some potential buyers have estimated the commercial worth of Channel 4 and are taking soundings about selling this public service broadcaster on the open market.
“It would turn an enterprise that began as an important and corrective cultural venture into just another commercial channel catering to the lowest common denominator of popular taste. There is no upside for the viewing public but it would certainly give the owner a licensed up and running vehicle to make millions,” comments Farrukh, grimly.
This year Dhondy has written a couple of screenplays, for India and for a UK director, both of which are close to being financed and produced. “On August the 15th Rumour books of India will publish my stab at a history of India – an opinionated if simplified version entitled India My India. And Hachette will publish the third in my semi-autobiographical trilogy called Cambridge Company.
”This gifted artist never stops, long may he continue to bless us with his talent.
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Channel Four gave the commissioning editors absolute leeway.
