In television programming docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. Contrary to docufiction, which basically is documentary, filmed in real time, “reality” in docudrama is filmed at a time ulterior to the events it portrays. It is based on narrative and fiction. Docudrama producers sometimes use as location for a realistic setting (fiction) a natural stage - see stage (theater) - , the place itself where the dramatised events are supposed to have occurred. Some of the crome files in television and programmes like Neraalu-Ghoraalu are examples of this format.
Docudramas tend to demonstrate some or most of the following characteristics:
Focus on the facts of the event, as they are known;
Use of literary and narrative techniques to flesh out the bare facts of an event in history to tell a story;
Some degree of license may be taken with minor historical facts for the sake of enhancing the drama.
A good docudrama does not abuse dramatic license, and avoids overt commentary and explicit assertion of the creator's own point of view or beliefs.
Docudramas are distinct from historical fiction, in which the historical setting is a mere backdrop for a plot involving fictional characters.
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