"Ashwin Chitale" identifies completely with 10-year-old Bokya Satbande

"Ashwin Chitale" identifies completely with 10-year-old Bokya Satbande

Big screen beckons bokya

Fourteen-year-old, Ashwin Chitale, identifies completely with 10-year-old Bokya Satbande — the child character first created by Dilip
Prabhawalkar (aka 'Bapu' of Lage Raho Munnabhai) nearly a quarter of a century ago, which has a near cult status today.

He sees his reflection in Bokya's mischief juxtaposed with his altruism in helping everyone around him. "Bokya is just like me. I remember a story, where Bokya and his friends collect pocket money, buy some books and toys, collect some odd stuff from their houses and use it all as aids to teach poems and maths to the children of their housemaids in the summer vacations. Initially, I read the books because they were written by Dilipkaka, but I loved them and still remember them all and I am looking forward to seeing the film," says the child actor whose debut film, Shwaas bagged him the National Best Child Artist award and the film, a National Award as well as an Oscar nomination.

Chitale is not alone. He is joined by thousands of children of varying ages, who have endowed Bokya with the cult status it enjoys even two decades after Prabhawalkar first wrote it. The child, likened by many to Dennis the Menace has spawned mediums across radio as a play, a book series, which has just gone into its 12th edition, a television serial and finally, has just hit the big screen as a film.

For Prabhawalkar, it's all in a day's work, be it being 'Bapu' and making Gandhigiri, a style statement, or creating Bokya Satbande. For this bio-physicist, reel life began with Chimanrao—the popular Marathi serial on DD in the
late 1980s. Things took a dramatic turn, as both silver screen and the written word brought him fame.

More than 21 books in Marathi followed, on contemporary affairs laced with satire went alongside his acting career. But it is the 10-year old, street-smart, mischevious, yet intelligent and tactful, socially aware boy Bokya who made his first appearance through a weekly evening radio play on Akashwani in the late 1980s and its continuing popularity that amazes Prabhawalkar. "Madhav Kulkarni, the then director at Akashwani asked me to write a play for children, for the weekly children's programme, Bal Darbar. I was sceptical about the success of a radio play because television had become popular by then. Unbelievably, though, it clicked and many children wrote to me," says a proud Prabhawalkar.
Seeing a perfect fit of Bokya in print, Dilip Mazgaonkar, proprietor of the Pune-based publishing house Rajhans Prakashan offered to publish the content. "Children of each generation need a character they can relate to. The 60s had ND Tamhankar's Gotya, the 70s had BR Bhagwat Faster Fene, but there was no one after that. Bokya has a positive element: he is mischievous yet constructive. Having published a couple of Dilip's earlier books, I was aware of his writing style and thought if he wrote the stories keeping Bokya at the centre it would work. The first edition released in three parts with 15 stories in December 1994 (Rs 40). Bokya's popularity is evident, as we release the 12th edition with five parts, each edition of 2,000 books per part," says Mazgaonkar.

From print to TV...Bokya's adventures caught Doordarshan's interest in 1996 and Vinay Apte, a newbie to DD then, was given the task of directing a 13-episode television serial. The now veteran actor director, Apte recalls the genesis of Bokya to an American channel survey which summarised, that children watching extra-marital affairs, murders and bank heists on TV during their adolescent years could not be expected to be responsible citizens. Bokya, according to Apte was an option. "I made the serial with the idea of presenting a role model for children. DD re-ran the series for
two years after which Zee Marathi broadcast Bokya every May for the first three years of the channel's launch."

The 12th edition of the books co-incides with the release of the Marathi film on Bokya, produced by Kanchan Satpute. Satpute, a principal at Pune, was motivated to do something for children using the audio-visual medium and Bokya presented the opportunity because there is a subtle moral in every story. With a Rs 20-30 lakh budget, Satpute has opted for an initial print run of nine across Pune and Mumbai for now. But going by the recent successes of Marathi films and the cult status of the character, the film's success seems ensured.

Suprisingly, in spite of having created a franchise, Prabhalwalkar has not realised his creations' worth, while global counterparts like Dennis the Menace, Batman or even the recent Harry Potter have made it to the billionaire club.

"I have not calculated how much Bokya is worth," says the creator. Trust, and not commerce, was the driving force and Mazgaonkar adds: "We has a revenue-sharing agreement for the book, but we never structured it that way. I am sure Bokya has a huge worth, but we have not yet calculated it or thought of other avenues. I am now trying to persuade Dilip to write at least five more parts and also thinking of publishing the book in other languages." Ajay Phutane, director of a Pune-based media agency AP Communications, attempts a guess as to the probable worth, "Bokya Satbande is worth over a crore of rupees. It has been extremely popular through all its forms. However, I am sure it has not been used to its full worth."

Till the next episode of Bokya Satbande...

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