Indra Dhnush (

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

for Rainbow), later AsiaVision, was a British

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

subscription channel aimed at the South Asian diaspora.

History

The channel launched in May 1986 on the cable networks of

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places *Detroit–Windsor, Michigan-Ontario, USA-Canada, North America; a cross-border metropolitan region Australia New South Wales *Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area Queen ...

and

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, where the Asian population at the time was estimated to be at 30%. The channel later extended its coverage to

Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...

's cable network; by 1991, Ealing Cabletel was the owner of the service. Like its sister channel HVC, Indra Dhnush purchased many movies as cheaply as possible, making copies via low-band

U-matic U-matic, also known as -inch Type E Helical Scan or SMPTE E, is an analog recording videocassette format developed by Sony. First shown as a prototype in October 1969 and introduced commercially in September 1971, it was among the earliest vi ...

tapes and distributing the films to other cable operators (along with a paper-based schedule) to play within their own local cable areas using a semi-automated system. Because the starting times were fixed, there were gaps in programming.From Tony Currie, Controller of Programmes at the Cable Authority (1987–1991) There was a prospective launch nationwide on satellite slated for 1992, which was never achieved. Cabletel Ealing later sold the channel to two businessmen, parting ways from HVC. The channel upgraded from a "warehouse of tapes" to a proper channel, being renamed AsiaVision in the process. Under the new name, the service was to be uplinked by satellite to 16,000 subscribing households. The channel eventually shut down in 1994 due to accumulated debts, larger than the ones expected.

Programming

Indra Dhnush primarily broadcast

Hindi films Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Hollywood". The industry, producing films in th ...

and

television programmes A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platfo ...

with some material in other Indian languages, namely in

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

and

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

. Additionally, some

Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...

serials aired on the channel, either showing one episode or omnibuses of an existing serial.''Cable Guide'', December 1991 Doordarshan serials known to have been carried by Indra Dhnush were: * ''Ekas Ke Hum Barik'' (Punjabi) * ''Chunni'' (Hindi) * ''Bahadur Shah Zafar'' (Hindi) * ''

Nukkad ''Nukkad'' () is an Indian Hindi-language television series that aired on DD National in 1986–87. It was directed by Kundan Shah, Aziz Mirza and Saeed Akhtar Mirza; it was written by Prabodh Joshi and Anil Chaudhary. It starred Dilip Dh ...

'' (Hindi) * ''Darpan'' (Hindi) * ''

Vishwamitra Vishvamitra (, ) is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of ancient India. Vishvamitra is one of the seven Brahmarshi. According to Hindu tradition, he is stated to have written most of the Mandala 3 of the Rigveda, including the Ga ...

'' (Hindi) * ''

Buniyaad ''Buniyaad'' () is an Indian television soap opera directed by Ramesh Sippy and Jyoti Sarup. The series was written by Manohar Shyam Joshi and dealt with the Partition of India in 1947 and its aftermath. It was first aired in 1986 on the India ...

'' (Hindi) * '' Hum Log'', the first serial produced by Doordarshan (Hindi) * '' King Vikram'' (Hindi) * ''Panchi'' (Hindi) By 1992, cooking shows had joined the schedule (''Cooking with Korma''), as well as music programmes.''Satellite Times'', July 1992

References

{{Original UK satellite channels British Indian mass media Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom Cable-only UK television channels Television channels and stations established in 1986 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1994 1986 establishments in the United Kingdom 1994 disestablishments in the United Kingdom