I have completed more than 4000 episodes of Samvad on ETV Marathi, followed by hundred more, in which mega star Amitabh Bachchan to political leaders like Sharad Pawar, Raj Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray and writer Shyam Manohar to Kamal Desai, Narendra jadhav, Uttam Kambli were featured. VIP’s from all over Maharashtra, graced ‘Sanvad’ with their presence.

Time and again, I have been asked questions related to ‘Making of Sanvad, the thought behind ‘Sanvad’, Special moments, benefit from ‘Sanvad’ at large, and uniqueness of the program. Recollecting the initial days before Sanvad happened, I would like to mention one fact that the program was not conceptualized directly as ‘Sanvad’ or thought about in those lines.

The celebrities, that I am talking about, have very little to contribute to society. Real celebrities are those, who work diligently, excel in their field, contribute towards the betterment of the society but find no mention on page three or flash in to limelight. People like Himmatrao Baviskar, invented vaccine over Scorpio bite, people who relentlessly worked for empowerment of women, adoption and orphans or work for homeless women, go unnoticed, unsung. These people, whom I am talking about, do not indulge in rioting on roads, neither are they part of any scandal or scams neither they speak the language of weapons. They are of no help in generating fraud ration cards like a Corporator would do. If a Corporator and a nuclear scientist are neighbors, the Corporator would be the most sought after person, while the scientist would be royally ignored.

The thought of ‘Sanvad’ germinated in my mind, on the onset of one incidence. A world renowned gynecologist, Dr. Mhatre was awarded the Man World award in 2005. He stays in Dadar, Mumbai but his identity is restricted to the fact that, he stays below Anup Jalota’s apartment.

After the first successful Ovary Transplant in India, the first question BBC asked him was, “India must be celebrating your success, doctor, isn’t it? It’s the first for research on Ovary Transplant and a matter of pride for India in field of medicine! It was the West, which was reputed for such breakthrough but you brought this honor to India”. Dr. Mhatre replied in general, too embarrassed to reveal the truth, no one was bothered about his achievement back home and neither took any note of it, not even the local ‘Corporator’, Minister, MP or Prime-Minister and President for that matter. In fact, they tried to create obstacles in his path.

I communicated with the channel but they turned me away, saying there is no TRP for such programs. I fought and argued. Celebrities, like Amitabh Bachchan and Bal Thackeray, were highest TRP riders but what about these common people, who are contributing in an uncommon way! I was able to drive this point through to P.K Manavi and Mr. Narkar and ‘Sanvad’ rolled off.

For the first episode of ‘Sanvad,’ I interviewed IAS officer Avinash Dharmadhikari but Kumar Ketkar’s interview was shown instead as first. I took the responsibility of researching for the show, on my shoulders. People today ask me how you made the show a success and here I, would like to point out success is not achieved in a day!

Lot of hard work, extensive research, networking throughout the interiors of Maharashtra has gone in to the success that people see me with today. In the past I have done research for Priya Tendulkar’s political shows ‘Aap ki Adalat’, ‘Jimmedar Kaun?’ Followed by research for many political shows on various channels. It was a tough journey uphill! This was the beginning of ‘Sanvad’ and since then, there was no looking back.