''Surabhi'' ("Fragrance") is an Indian cultural magazine show hosted by

Renuka Shahane Renuka Shahane (born 7 October 1966) is an Indian actress working in the Bollywood film industry and in Indian television, best known as the co-presenter of the Doordarshan TV show '' Surabhi'' (1993–2001). Early life Renuka Shahane was bor ...

and

Siddharth Kak Siddharth Kak is an Indian documentary maker, television producer, and presenter, best known as the producer and presenter of Surabhi (1990–2001). Subsequently, Kak established the 'Surabhi Foundation' with the assistance of Ford Foundation ...

, which ran from 1990 to 2001 with a year's break in 1991. It was initially telecast on the state-run television channel Doordarshan, and later moved to Star Plus in the Sunday morning slot. Surabhi was produced by Kak's

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

-based production house Cinema Vision India. Its theme was Indian culture. The show is India's longest-running cultural series and features in the

Limca Book of Records The ''Limca Book of Records'' is an annual reference book published in India documenting world records held by Indians. The records are further categorized into education, literature, agriculture, medical science, business, sports, nature, advent ...

for receiving the largest measured audience response ever in the history of Indian television.

History

The title music of ''Surabhi'' was composed by Indian composer and classical violinist L. Subramaniam. Indian cooperative dairy giant

Amul Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL) is an Indian dairy state government cooperative society, based in Anand, Gujarat. Formed in 1946, it is a cooperative brand managed by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today i ...

sponsored it for a long time, and the show was titled ''Amul Surabhi''. One of the reasons of its popularity was the weekly quiz open for viewer participation. At that time, mobile phones and the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

were not prevalent in India and viewers would post their responses using the 15

paise Paisa (also transliterated as ''pice'', ''pesa'', ''poysha'', ''poisha'' and ''baisa'') is a monetary unit in several countries. The word is also a generalised idiom for money and wealth. In India, Nepal, and Pakistan, the ''Paisa'' currently equa ...

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

India post India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings ...

. According to the ''

'', the show once received the highest ever documented response in the history of Indian television – over 1.4 million letters in a single week. The Indian postal department was forced to issue a different category of postcards called "Competition Postcards" priced at 2 Rupees each for participating in such contests."The fragrance of Surabhi"
/ref> During the 1990s, ''Surabhi'' had become a benchmark show and is known as "one of the best television shows ever made that reflected the length and breath of the

Indian culture Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse India. The term al ...

". Subsequently, Kak established the Surabhi Foundation with the assistance of

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

and started a project on preserving cultural artifacts.

References

External links

*
The title music of Surabhi on YouTube

History

References

Further reading

External links

See also