Producing a TV documentary that isn't cheap entertainment, yet still manages to have long lasting popularity - and a spin-off book to boot - is not within the powers of your average producer. But TVBurapha's Prasan Ingkanunt is not your average producer.

His "Kob Nok Kala", the Channel 9 documentary that goes behind the scenes to bring us eyewitness accounts of everyday life, has been making a splash on the airwaves and in print.

"Kob Nok Kala" translates as "A Frog Outside the Coconut Shell", a metaphor for a person emerging from a shell of ignorance into the real world outside. While the TV documentary has been scooping awards left, right and centre, its book spin-off titled "Khwam Roo Nok Kala" ("Knowledge Outside the Coconut Shell") has been climbing the bestseller list.

 "Book sales have been good," says Prasan, adding that more than 3,000 copies had been snapped up over seven days at the last Bangkok book fair.

 For Prasan and his team members, compiling episodes of "Kob Nok Kala" in book form seemed like a good way of attracting a new audience to TVBurapha, especially as it could be done through the broadcaster's own publishing house.

The first two volumes of the book enjoyed a warm reception from a diverse cross-section of the general public, from students to grandparents.

"We decided that the documentary shouldn't just be confined to a TV programme as our audience is made up of different generations. People were talking about the series three months after it went on air, so we thought a book spin-off would work," says Prasan.

Like its TV version, the book has earned acclaim for its "edu-tainment" approach. Prasan attributes the book's success to the creative strength of TVBurapha's producers, who are satisfying a hunger for knowledge among an audience otherwise starved of documentaries with substance.

Prasan admits, though, that substance doesn't generally translate into popularity - the recipe for ratings success is usually made up of froth like game shows, comedies and talk shows. Giving substance to the viewer - "bitter medicine" in Prasan's own words - is a risky business.

Prasan's answer was to coat the pill with sugar. The result is a documentary style that is entertaining - with attractive, youthful hosts making it appealing to youngsters and adults alike, but also genuinely educational. "Perhaps one reason that it's well-received are that our topics are part of the viewer's everyday life. The subjects also have to be unusual or surprising in some way, another factor that tends to hold people's interest," Prasan says.

"Kob Nok Kala" touches on quite a range of subjects, covering everything from how to prepare plaa rah (fermented fish), to electricity generating, to wig and condom manufacture - all told through eyewitness accounts that take the readers to places otherwise off-limits like power plants, factories and prisons.

Despite its variety, the subject matter falls into just four categories: consumer products, careers, customs and festivals and "surprising stuff" (like human faeces, Prasan says). "We run the gamut from personal interest stories to complex subjects of real importance."

In the episode on electricity generating, for instance, the host took a step-by-step approach, visiting different power plants and coal mines operated by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to answer the simple question: Where does the electricity come from? Backing up was a co-host who captured the process of installing gigantic power pylons.

Prasan says that "Kob Nok Kala" hasn't been tempted into the entertainment-rich, substance-poor mainstream of Thai broadcasting. Because of this, he reckons that the show will be durable.

"I don't believe it's part of the mainstream or  a fickle trend. There's a wealth of subjects that pique the viewer's interest - I don't think it's going to be superseded anytime soon. It's all down to the care you take in choosing subjects - we could do an episode about the dinosaur, for instance, but even though it's an interesting subject, it's not right for us.

"I think most viewers would like to see more shows in the careers category, focusing on the amazing things some people do for a living."

With his conviction that the breadth of "Kob Nok Kala's" subject matter will broaden viewers' horizons, Prasan thinks the next step is to produce an encyclopaedia, a sort of A-to-Z guide to subjects explored in the programme.

"That could be the right thing to do in the future," concludes Prasan.

  Meanwhile, Prasan is continuing to lead Thais out of the confines of the coconut shell.

Manote Tripathi

The Nation