Posted:
Dear all,
After many, many postings and calls to SO, some investigation and analysis, it seems geet is indeed in troubled waters. For starters, there is no official reaction to the news and the reams and reams of protest letters and messages. There never will be. There's a tide of opinion and curiosity building up and no side will ever clarify but make placatory gestures. Here's why.
(1) Do you think the channel or the PH will want to jeopardise TRPs or revenue value of a show which still has either one-and-a-half months (if it ends on October 15) or two months (if October end) to go? As channel head, I wouldn't have. How would we have ironed out the running costs? So you will get placatory answers and silence.
(2) How can they ignore the tide of opinion, you may ask? That just helps them keep the curiosity value for the show alive till the end and helps it get advertisers. Show goes out with a bang and the channel hopes, even a trickle of the viewers follows their new programming on Star Desh.
(3) Why the early leak in the first place? Because fans like me will certainly get tired of posting and finger-happy comments. And there will be a gradual withdrawal from the frenzy. The production house, which doesn't want to follow the format of the new channel Star Desh, and the channel, feel less guilty, therefore, of not trying hard enough. Frankly, the PH may have had to compromise more than we know though we tend to blame them all too harshly.
(4) I have spoken to contacts in the television industry and it seems Star Desh, much to our dislike, intends to go the Colors way with more localised, regional stories, particularly pitched for Gujarat. Understandably, Geet wouldn't figure in that calculation. That it is a story of love and relationship would cut little ice. Who knows probably the amritsar track was a tester of this strategy. But it didn't work because Geet still to us is akin to the image of Star One (smart, city-based programming). Look at the TRPs, they soared when it dealt with only maan-geet, when they were co-workers and living in Delhi. The day they began piling clutter around them, the show nosedived. Because Geet's core audience is the city slicker, not the B or C or D tier towns where Star One doesn't reach. Geet's viewers are internet-savvy and spread worldwide, so they can create mayhem on the internet. The channel knows that perception cannot match figures on their TAM meters, wherever they are. It matters little that perception is the name of the game in the TV industry because I know for sure how channels manage TAM strategies. Star One has clearly not managed this front well.
(5) Maybe the leak was unintended. Everybody wanted to keep it quiet but some mole has burrowed his way out.
(6) Why you need to go over latest statements of actors associated with the show with a pinch of salt. In stray comments, both the leads have at least talked about their intense desire to be a part of reality shows. Drashti even said, "Watch me in my new show" and quickly covered it up with "picture abhi baki hai." Officially, no actor or crew will say the show is ending. It brings down morale.
So what do we do? Because there is saturation of petitions, letters, pleas to the channel. I also don't see some regular fans stroll by at regular fan sites and facebook communities.
(a) Celebrate the show like it would never end and gift it what it has given us, massive viewer hits (because no matter how much we watch it on TV, the numbers don't reflect in the channel's installed TAM meters)
(b) Make an appeal to the creatives (so far, they have been listening to some of our suggestions) to give us what we fell in love with Geet for in the first place: great Maaneet moments, their intense chemistry and mature dialogues (a sample of which we had in the husband-wife conversation of the episode of 25th august). For some of us, no other show will give us sweeter memories. Maybe a DVD would help us recall some of them on an armchair. I could watch Geet even at age 70.
(c) Thank Gurmeet and Drashti for entertaining us and in the process evolve as two very good actors. We need to encourage them, considering that the fan community has been very harsh on their personal lives, something that cost us the lovely interviews they gave us.
(d) Hope that the production house, which indeed began very well, casts these two actors as leads again (many onscreen couples have been repeated in thetele world and we have just had a year of viewing Gurmeet-Drashti) in a story that has more meat. Of course, this is subject to the two actors agreeing to work again in the first place (they have run scared of vicious fans though they have said publicly that they don't mind working together).
(e) Hope that an experimental channel like Sony picks up a new Gurmeet-Drashti story (again provided the lead actors agree to sign up together) since they are trying to be the clutter-breaker and scoring high even in the 10 to 11 pm late night slot.
(f) But above all do what we fans can do best, be diehard Geet fans till its end and keep it afloat on our best prayers and intentions.
Thank you for reading. This will be my last post because closure is not always easy. The more I come back, the more depressing it gets.
Cricket
Udne Ki Aasha
Veer Hanuman
Anupamaa
