Call
him Mr. India
Divakar
Shukla's media savvy helps unite a booming community
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Divakar Shukla prepares
backstage before hosting the Miss India North Carolina pageant
in Raleigh's BTI Center.
Staff
Photo by Robert Willett
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By
DANNY HOOLEY, Staff Writer
Divakar Shukla, the Carolinas' kingpin of Indian
culture, pops up on Triangle's cable channel 24 at 3 p.m. every Sunday to lead a
guided tour through Bollywood.
For the next hour, he
entertains his audience with news, back stories and mini-reviews as he screens
musical numbers from the films of Bombay, the Hollywood of India. Full of lavish
costumes, dance and romance, they range from vintage black-and-whites going back
to the 1950s to scenes from the new movies that have caught on in the West.
This is "Nazar
Television," a show that takes its name from a Hindi word for
"vision" and it represents one of Shukla's main footholds on the
Indian-American cultural landscape. He also co-publishes a monthly Indian
entertainment magazine called Saathee with his brother Samir. Cary businessman
Nagi Reddy calls Saathee "the one source for the ethnic community and
businesses."
As a communications major at
N.C. State University in the mid-'80s, Shukla was known for rock 'n' roll,
playing drums in a band and running student station WKNC. He has not abandoned
his passion for rock -- he's a radio host at a station in Charlotte, where he
spins indie rock and the music of regional bands -- but his adventures in media
have turned him into an entrepreneur serving a growing market.
With "Nazar" and
acting jobs in local TV commercials, he has assumed a mantle of celebrity, which
he wore confidently this spring at the Miss India North Carolina pageant. There,
he read his comic lines like a pro and flirted with visiting Miss North Carolina
Kirstin Marie Elrod. He put the contestants -- many of them
elementary-school-age -- at ease, high-fiving them in a weaving line as he
trotted in to make his entrance. And he did his genial best to pump up the
audience, who clearly knew who he was.
Shukla, who is 40, didn't
design this path deliberately. An element of fate seems to be working in his
favor, opportunities based on who he is and where he has been. And his
philosophy seems to match that of Bollywood filmmakers, who see the need to
reach beyond the Indian community but recognize the importance of maintaining
their culture.
Gujarat to Charlotte
Like many Indian kids, Shukla's
earliest musical influences came from Bollywood flicks, the source of India's
pop hits. His family moved from the West India state of Gujarat to New York City
in 1973, then to Charlotte six years later.
His father, Kirit, a civil
engineer who worked for Duke Power Co., plays harmonium, a reed organ whose
sound is often heard in Bollywood numbers. The interest in music rubbed off on
Divakar, the second of four children.
While attending NCSU, Shukla
became general manager at radio station WKNC -- "I ran the whole
place," he says -- and also was host of the afternoon drive-time show. He
interned at UNC-TV and radio station WRDU (106.1 FM) and graduated in 1988. He
returned to Charlotte and worked at rock radio station WRFX and, later, at WEND.
For seven years, Shukla also
managed a Hindu Center-affiliated radio show on the AM station WNOW. He says
older people in the community approached him with the idea of distributing a
mailer that showed where Indian businesses are. The Saathee mailer eventually
became the magazine.
"Nazar," which
celebrates its seventh anniversary in August, came out of a similar
metamorphosis. Before this show, Divakar had a cable access program called
"Indie Vision," which showcased Charlotte-area bands. The show was on
the air for six months, and sold commercials. With increasing on-air experience
and equipment at his disposal, though, Shukla decided it was time to do the
Indian show he had in mind.
For the first two years, he
taped "Nazar" in his dining room. He developed his natural persona as
an easygoing, friendly, knowledgeable and even-keeled host. His deep, smooth,
resonant voice is right for the airwaves.
Time Warner Cable picked up
"Nazar" for its Triangle TV channel five years ago. The show also airs
on channels in Salisbury, Albemarle, Gastonia, Concord, Kannapolis, Burlington,
Greensboro and Winston-Salem.
Shukla now produces his show in
a studio four miles from downtown Charlotte. Its slot has expanded from a
half-hour to an hour.
"We've grown with the
community, basically," Shukla says.
A 266 percent boom
North Carolina's Indian
community has grown from 9,847 in 1990 to 26,197 in 2000, according to U.S.
Census figures. Shukla attributes the growth to the dot-com boom of the late
1990s and helping hands from relatives who moved here first.
More films from Bollywood's
prolific directors reached the States, too. The target audience was the Indian
community, but others have sampled the splashy melodramas. Awareness of
Bollywood has been reflected in "Moulin Rouge," "Buffy the
Vampire Slayer" and "The Simpsons."
"Nazar Television"
has done its part by airing clips from movies that may show up in theaters such
as the Galaxy Cinema at Cary's Village Square Shopping Center.
"We play the song, and
basically we're promoting the movies that they're from," Shukla says.
Bollywood films are tailored
for a conservative society that wants to see romance minus raunch.
Traditionally, Bollywood filmmakers have resolved onscreen sexual tension with a
song instead of a kiss.
"Even nowadays, you have
these gangsters that are shooting each other up, then they break into a
song," Shukla says.
But Bollywood films are getting
steamier. Shukla, who tries to keep his show family-friendly, once aired a
number from Vikram Bhatt's "Kasoor," in which Canadian-born actress
Lisa Ray plays an attorney -- a high-powered role for a Bollywood actress -- who
falls in love with a criminal played by Aftab Shivdasani and must choose between
love and her career.
"The song's picturization
is very steamy," Shukla says. "He carries her up to the bedroom and
proceeds to go through the motions." The camera cuts to another part of the
bedroom, but the implied action was enough to draw fire from critics in India.
Local cable shows aren't
monitored for ratings, but Shukla gauges the show's success in other ways.
"The response the advertisers get and the response we get from viewers,
it's a very-well watched show, very well-accepted," he says.
Creating community
Saathee magazine has grown as
well, from a mailer sent to 800 people to a 100-page magazine of essays and
reviews and a circulation of 10,000.
"He actually brought all
Indian businesses together," says Nagi Reddy, 48, who owns Triangle Indian
Market and co-owns Galaxy Cinema in Cary, as well as a couple of vegetarian
restaurants. "I think he does significant work for this community. If any
Indians come to this area, they look for this magazine."
Another of Shukla's advertising
clients, Mihir Chakraborty of MC Realty, calls Shukla "a great
communicator."
Chakraborty, 56, started his
business in 2000 and has gone from listing homes to developing a 32-home
subdivision near Southpoint Mall in Durham. He credits "Nazar" and
Saathee magazine for getting his name out there.
"Saathee" and "Nazar
Television" also get a lot of advertising from Cary's Chatham Square.
Raj Sirohi owns an art,
furnishings and clothing store called Kalashri at Cary's Chatham Square, which
has a concentration of Indian shops and eating places. Sirohi, 50, advertises
with Shukla's magazine and TV show. People tell him they saw his commercial on
"Nazar."
"The show is great,"
he says. "That's why I went for that."
Staff writer
Danny Hooley can be reached at 829-4728 or dhooley@newsobserver.com
Copyright N&O 2005
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