After quitting Star in 1997, Rakesh took up large production consultancy and TV channel launch/ relaunch projects. These included the mega Polls’98 results show (72 hours live, DD1 and DD2; last of the ‘manual count’ elections) as the Executive Producer in charge of the show. A joint venture between Prasar Bharti and India Today group. Rakesh moved to Chennai in 1999 to relaunch Vijay TV now known as Star Vijay, a Tamil channel. The 8-month consultancy included finalizing programming strategy, channel re branding, commissioning fresh shows for the entire prime time band, recruitment and training of staff (Programming, in-house production, on-air promos etc). Rakesh finally quit broadcasting altogether in 2000 to return to film-making. It was while working on his first screenplay that he decided to accompany a friend to Kutch for relief work following the Jan 2001 approach, triggering his accidental return to documentary film-making with Aftershocks, initially planned as an advocacy video cum field report to pressurize GMDC and Gujarat government into releasing relief and compensation money. Aftershocks was premiered at the Fribourg International Film Festival in Feb 2002, where it won the Best Documentary award.
