Sheikh Zakir Salam, an Executive Producer (EP) with Sphere Origins’ Balika Vadhu on Colors, hadn’t earlier planned to be in the capacity. Things just happened one after the other in his eight-year stay in the industry, where he rose from being a production manager to an art director to his current post on which he has been for a while now. We at Tellychakkar.com cornered Sheikh for a freewheeling interview for our ‘Behind the Lens’ section. Tell us something about your journey in the TV industry? From the very beginning, I have climbed the ladder to become an EP. I was in college when I joined Anand Mahendru Productions’ as an office boy to earn some pocket money. Soon after that I became an assistant production manager. Later I was promoted to the post of production manager. Post-this, I became an assistant art director and then a full-fledged art director. However I became an EP by chance as I remember I was doing a show Salam Zindagi for Sony for which I was given a duty to locate an EP. This is when someone from the production said that I must take it up as I understand the job quite well. As a challenge, I became an EP. I joined Sphere Origins as an assistant production manager on its first show Detective Omkar Nath (2007) on Star One. Later, I took up Balika Vadhu for which I am in my current position as an EP from the last four years. Great… What is an EP’s responsibility? An EP’s job is to co-ordinate with the actors, get the script on time and most importantly do the scheduling part the right way for it is not an easy job. For this, one has to keep in mind the availability of the actors and the place while keeping in mind the telecast dates of the show. However for me, being an EP is not my only responsibility, I do everything that comes my way as the most important thing is to have an uninterrupted shoot. Do you have hard time to co-ordinate with the actors? When you’re doing a daily soap, the actor’s dates are usually an issue. Luckily, I have never had to face any major issues in Balika Vadhu. But what happens in other places is that most of these actors have a lot of ego. Hence things get difficult. Here we have manageable problems but if it increases any further, it might affect work. We are sure that you have had to learn to deal with actors? See, as an EP, one needs to have fine tuning with the actors. If his or her relationship with the actor is good, everything gets sorted. It is a EPs profile that he must know to tackle things humbly but if an actor does not listen even after that, he can take the Creative’s help. How many hours do you work in a day? I work round the clock and I am fine with it as I have got used to this pattern. But it gets difficult for my family to deal with it as I am on the phone all the time. In fact, on days when I have an off, all that I do is to coordinate with actors for the next day’s shoot. I don’t get time even to sleep. In fact, that’s not it; I keep getting calls from the Channel PRs and also the reporters. Unfortunately, I cannot even switch off my phone. So much of hard work and sleepless nights; what motivates you to do all this? When I see the number of episodes increasing from 500 to 1000, it motivates me. And when I receive a few calls of appreciation it motivates me too. Do the show’s TRPs affect even somebody at your level who isn’t directly responsible for its success or failure? A script can be written beautifully however if it’s not executed well nobody is going to watch it. When a show fails, all are responsible as everybody is affected at the end of the day. If the show goes off-air, all the people are bound to lose their jobs. Have you ever faced any monetary issues with the productions you’ve worked for earlier and the current one? I have never faced such issues but a lot of people face such situations. I have been with Sphere for quite some time but I do not feel like leaving it as my producers have been very supportive. How helpful is CINTAA? I personally have never had the need to get involved with CINTAA in any matter but I am a member of theirs as I am a part of the industry. However, CINTAA has been very helpful to those who get injured on the sets or any other kind of mishap; they are always there to help. Your advice to people who aspire to become EPs… If a person wants to become an EP, he must know other aspects of making a show. I would never advice anybody to become an EP directly as in that case, people can take him or her for granted. I wouldn’t say that people must start the way I did but they must first try and work in other departments also.