New Delhi, July 16 -- Twenty-five years ago, one guy put another guy's stapler in jelly.

As practical jokes go, it's a good one, even if one doesn't expect it to change the very face of television storytelling. The first episode of The Office, by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, was broadcast a quarter of a century ago, and the show-streaming in India on the BBC Player section of Amazon Prime-brought about a quiet revolution. Here we had characters in a desperately dreary office set in a lifeless township, but, for some inexplicable reason, they were being filmed. Suddenly, as they sold paper stock and indulged in office backbiting and told inadvisable jokes behind each other's backs, they had to contend with all-seeing cameras.

This...