B. P. Singh is an Indian television producer, who own the Fireworks Productions. He is the creator and director-producer of the Indian TV series C.I.D., (april 1997 to present), the longest running TV series in India.[1][2], which started CID Gallantry Awards in 2010.[3] He also produced hit horror series Aahat, 1996 to present.[4]
On October 8, 2004, an special episode, "The Inheritance" / C.I.D. 111, to mark the completion of seven years of CID in December, was shot in a single continuous shot for 111 minutes (one hour and 51 minutes), which landed the show in the Limca Book of Records as ‘TV show - longest continual shot’. [5]
He originally belongs to Dehradun and studied at Indian Film and Television Institute, Pune. [6] He started his career working with state TV-channel Doordarshan in 1973 as a news camera-man and went on to handle the camera for another 10 years, before he relocating to Mumbai. He made murder mystery TV film for Doordarshan, Sirf Char Din, while preparing for that film, he started visiting the Crime Branch of police, and befriended Inspector Jayant Wagle, and in the process developed a lifelong interest in detective work. Subsequently produced TV series, Ek Shunya Shunya for Doordarshan in 1980s, before relocating to Mumbai where he made a few Marathi serials for Doordarshan.[7]
Horror series Aahat was first shot in 1994 as a suspense thriller, and it started being aired in 1996, but after about 40 episodes with the same theme, one episode on supernatural theme was made and when TRPs of the series rose sharply, it made the switch.[6]
Turning point in career came with beginning of Sony TV channel, and started shooting C.I.D., started on Sony TV in 1997, about a team of detectives working for the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in Mumbai and is still on. Meanwhile CID film is still in the writing and pre-production stage, and is planned for release in 2012.[4], and started a silent comedy called Gutur Gu in 2010.[8][9] He is also the producer of these two series along with Pardeep Uppoor.
He has worked with many known artists and is famous for giving breaks to new artists. He was the first to give a break to Canadian actor Remi Clair during his struggling days in Mumbai as main lead in C.I.D. and police inspector in Aahat.