Long affair with comedy: Diana Silvester

At 3.30 pm, Diana Silvester is busy on the studio floor of Asianet, Kochi, preparing for the next schedule of her programme. She talks effortlessly to her colleagues and cracks some jokes while the photographer clicks her photographs. That is her — jovial and composed; a person who loves to be behind the camera, away from the limelight. Certainly, she is not overly excited about her achievements. Diana, the brain behind the popular satirical television show Cinemala, has got close to 180 awards just for the show.  It entered the Limca Book of Records as the ‘longest weekly programme in India’.

The Universal Records Forum has recognised her efforts under the category ‘most number of programmes directed by a female in the world’. It also selected Cinemala as the longest weekly programme .Recently, the same organisation has selected her for the ‘Women of the Year 2016’ award.  How do you feel about it? “I just feel happy,” she says smiling. “Most of the awards I received were for Cinemala. When I began the show back in 1993, I hardly imagined it would continue for 20 years and reach 1000 episodes,” she adds. The show stopped in 2013 with the 1000th episode.

During the 1000 th episode celebration, the team took comments from people including celebrities, which proved how deeply their show was admired by all. “I could do any other programme after doing Cinemala. That was the toughest show I have ever done,” says Diana, who now spearheads Badai Bungalow broadcast in Asianet. “In Cinemala, everything was spontaneous. Every week, we had to pick a news and lace it with humour. We had a team. They could handle most situations well. But, sometimes, we would have to hunt for dupes. Also, there is a risk when you do satire. You cannot predict the outcome accurately,” she says. But, still, Cinemala struck the right cord. It was because of the team spirit. “There was a bond between us. Also, we had Sudheer Shasthri as make up man. He could do any makeover quickly. All these helped.”

Cinemala, a show that is as old as Asianet, was not a satirical show in the beginning. Walking down memory lane, Diana says, “Out then our president Sasikumar told me to arrange a show using film clippings. He asked whether I could categorise the clips. I watched movies and came up with 100 categories. He was impressed. Each one was really minute. For instance, one categorisation was dialogues rendered by the hero after winning a fight scene. Now, it may not look like a difficult job. But, it was a challenge those days. The show got its name as it was a compilation of film clippings.”

Praseetha was the host of the show. Gradually, the show moved to humour. They took social issues and political developments as subjects. Diana cannot recall the transition exactly. “The show was popular since inception. I can’t easily recollect the transition. It just happened and the audience began to like the satire more than mere film clippings. In time, the ‘film part’ faded away. However, we didn’t change the title.” Diana is proud of handling comedy, the toughest genre. She had that skill from her childhood days. “Humour comes naturally to me. Although my father was an engineer by profession, he was an art lover. He was part of an amateur troupe ‘Tip- Top’ that mostly played comedy dramas. The rehearsals took place at my home. Those days sowed the seeds of humour in my mind. I learnt the significance of timing in comedy from them. But, my comedy is still not good as theirs,” confesses Diana, who participated in mimicry and mono act during school days. She was a drummer during her college days.

At a time when the quality of comedy on television channels is deteriorating, Diana’s programmes stand apart. Be it Cinemala or Badai Bungalow, she makes sure that humour does not breach the border. “I don’t entertain vulgarity in comedy. I have not done that. I don’t like using dialogues with double meaning. Even while doing Cinemala, we made sure that it didn’t hurt anybody. Even politicians like Karunakaran loved watching his dupes on the show,” laughs Diana, who believes that comedy is an accepted norm now. “Back then, people hesitated to accept comedy although they liked it. That attitude has changed now.”