Today, 6 of us, Spandana, Roshini, Bru, Preethi and Bru's friend went to the Star India Office in Bangalore. To say that we had an eventful experience will be an understatement 😃
Let me start from the beginning. Once all of us met up, we walked to the reception and were told that we had to enter our names in a register. I walked up to the lady and told her that we are not sure whom we should meet, but that we were fans of one of the shows on their channel and were here to voice our opinions and feedback. Here instantaneous reaction of"Which show, GEET?" left me with a smile on my face😆. I very proudly acknowledged that yes, indeed it was Geet. She was quick to tell me that since this was just a sales office, they would not be able to help us much and that we had to just call the Mumbai office. But hum bhi Maan aur Geet ke fans hai. Aise hi kaise chod sakte the. I told her that we had called them multiple times and were not getting anything concrete and that we wanted to talk to someone in person. She told me that they didn;t have a representative here, so I told her that she had to either put us through to some sales person who could hear us out and pass on our message, or she could call the mumbai office right from there so we could all talk. Yup, she chose the first option😛.
Like she had confessed to me earlier itself, the Bangalore Star India office is just a Sales office and they do not have a marketing or media team operating out of here. So it probably should not have come as a surprise to us when every employee working there came outside of their cubicles to see us🤣. They were all interested to know as to why some girls just walked up to their office to talk about a show. This was something out of the world for them. They had never experienced anything of this sort, and we could tell that from the obvious disbelief and excitement on their faces. We looked at everyone and just smiled our sweetest smiles 😉
The guy who came to talk to us (who was really really sweet by the way) told us that the channel was still in the process of "deciding" and "finalizing" things and things at the moment were still unclear even to them . And for a while, that was all he could say, because then, we started talking😆. All of us together placed certain facts about the channel and Maneet in front of him. We pointed out to them that the fact that no other show has seen such responses is proof enough that Maneet work, and that they should be retained. Further more, we pointed out that at a time when the channel is considering a re-launch, it would be logical for them to retain a pair of leads that have worked for them unconditionally, rather than come up with a totally new option which may or may not work. We almost threatened them (sweetly ofcourse) that if Maneet weren't together, they would loose a fan base of close to 3 to 4 lakh people which would certainly not benefit them. We insisted that we wanted to see Maan and Geet together under any circumstance. Some of us even pointed out to them how Maan and Geet as characters had helped us get over adversities in our own live's and were an inspiration to most of us. We also told them of some who have already gotten into depressions. We brought into light the simple fact that Maan and Geet had ceased to be just some characters of a daily soap, but that they were a part of our own live's, our own family. 😳 We even warned him that this was just the beginning and that a lot more fans would visit the office to share their opinions 😆
After listening to us patiently, he tried to assure us in a most positive way that this change was very big for the channel too, and they are doing everything thet can to make sure they do everything right and that the audience' demands and thoughts and needs will certainly be considered in any decision making. Some of the things that he stated which are note-worthy are -
1. He told us that the kind of responses that they had received for Geet was "unbelievable and stupendous".
2. There wasn't a single Star office which had not received calls or emails, and in some cases, personal visits as well from fans demanding that the show be continued.
3. He told us that it was very important to the channel to appreciate and maintain the love of faith of their audiences and that he was sure that whatever decision they take, it will be with the huge fan request kept in mind.
4. He further informed us that the channel will come up with an official confirmation of everything sometime early next week. The re-launch that the channel is planning is supposedly a big one and the huge fan mails and requests are certainly being considered.
5. When one of us suggested that iof the channel does not decide soon, the actors may venture out to find themselves other projects, he was quick to assue us that the channel was already in conversation with the actors about what'z next.
6. He also patiently explained to us that he was scheduled to have a conversation with the National Head of the channel later today and that he would make it a point to tell him about our visit and our requests.
So, in a gist (like that is necessary, right 😆), please continue writing, calling, visiting the channel. It is working. Whatever it is that they have planned, they know that they cannot afford to piss off so many fans. Although they did not confirm anything one way or another, our continuous calls and efforts are making them think. So please keep fighting.
PS - This is from the horse's mouth of our experience today. Trust this post and nothing else. And now, get back to fighting to save the show. Halla Bol.
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