There is a reason I refrained from responding to the 'Open Letter' yesterday because I didn't want my emotions to cloud and frame my choice of words. I wanted to be objective and non judgmental while giving a response, which you must know is a first time for me never ever bothered to call or talk to anyone in the entertainment industry! My philosophy has always been - like it will watch it, don't like it will move on. After all, there are so many possibilities out there today!
Before I start with the actual intend of my post I think you should know a bit about the person writing it. I am your average urban Indian city girl, have been working for a while now in different industries and none of them bear any resemblance to the entertainment industry! So you see am not your typical demographic of the daily Indian soap watcher and that's not to discredit your demographic! This is just to make you aware that the viewership of IPKKD is not that of a stereotypical sampled audience but the majority is that of women (and some men) who are today's thinking youth and have opinions and perceptions that are modern and are head strong enough to share them and agree to disagree with what the other person has to say or show!
Now you will wonder why tell you all this? This is because you need to understand the audience you are catering to when you deliver in terms of storyline and comments and explanations! When you show regressive stuff and demeaning to today's woman, there will be an outcry and you need to accept it!
Coming to how this outlier to your demographic even started watching your show. I for one don't really follow any daily soap on Indian television ardently when I am flopped in front of the tv, I browse and what catches my eye I pause and watch it can be a movie, news or even a daily soap. If the episode looks interesting and memory permits I may re-watch the same show the next day, till the episodes stop holding my interest. So, no sentimental attachments for me, there are over 400 channels available, someone will offer something interesting somewhere to watch! However, the promos of IPK is what first caught my eye and the whole theory of a typical M&B love story seemed like a genre never attempted before and that is what made me sign up for this show. At that time I had no clue who the makers were, and didn't really care about the actors too I still don't! And I know many like me who signed up cause the idea was refreshing and the girl was identifiable. She may be a small town girl, but she was head strong, spoke her mind and wasn't the punching bag of the world!
Till the time the story line was promising, I like many others accolade the efforts but when the cracks started appearing (and I need another post to talk about the millions of them) and my logical brain started being put to test, I constructively criticized. I use the terms 'Constructively Criticize' cause that is what the feedback (most of it) is. If the episodes and tracks have fallen short, people have expressed their opinions on that. And you have opened forums and discussion lines to receive them. You seem to feel that opening online forums of discussion is a benefit you have given to your viewers, but let's call a spade a spade and accept that you are not stupid to do anything that doesn't have a beneficial vested interest of yours. This is business not a charity program! Hell the government will not give a privilege to the citizens if they didn't see a benefit in it in comparison you are still an upcoming PH.
So when you are so willing to accept and sweep the praises, accolades and fanship for your products, how come you fail to understand that criticism is the flipside of that same coin? If you don't like or can't handle criticism then I guess you are in the wrong business or else do not make room for there to be criticism.
Now coming to the major criticism your PH has been subjected to and in my years of movie watching, I haven't come across any PH being subjected to the criticism of 'Poor PR Skills'. You don't seem to like to hear it and many a sarcastic comments from your end have proven that, which ironically enough is a display of poor PR skills.
Now you may say, when viewers say it, its criticism, when we say it, its poor PR?
My answer is -Yes, because you and us are not the same!
You are the product makers and we the consumers. It could be your baby and you could be attached to it, but it's not important that the world thinks your baby is the best! You are in a business where people spends millions and make a product shooting in tough conditions and the product tanks, sometimes doesn't even get a buyer and some get criticized terribly (You should listen to some movie critics that review movies, they will make your blood curdle with their mean comments). You are lucky to receive day to day reviews and feedback cause that gives you room to reinvent and look to see where you fail.
Instead of taking the criticisms and using to their advantage, your writer openly makes the hideous statement, on a social networking sites, telling viewers 'Dekha Na Hai tho Dekho'!!
I will not even call it poor PR but shear arrogance. If you make enemies with the bread you eat then how do you plan to survive? And yeah I pose this question to you cause the concerned person is your employee while working for you and any statement made by any employee of your, reflects right back at you. And you did nothing to correct grounds here. That day you lost a huge chunk of audience trust me on that!
On and off there are been numerous rumours and speculations on someone or the other leaving the show and you failed again to control this situation. Actors leave other shows too, but how many times, inside negotiations and details get leaked publicly? Poor PR again! And now the latest display of your failing PR skills is the sorry excuse of a badly written, dripping with teenage rebellion kind of 'Open Letter to The Viewers' (and we get the sarcasm behind the open letter as the title), you have posted on your own forum, blatantly stating that you are done telling the story you wanted to and if we want to still make it run we need to feed ideas to you.
So what you are actually saying is (and we hear the other news too)
'I planned this for 300 350 episodes, which it has done, I told the story I wanted to and now I am ready to shut shop, but certain people won't let me. I am trying to come up with mindless,s no connect to the story kind of track, but you guys just won't quit watching, so let's strike a deal- you tell me what you want to watch,pen the whole thing down and pass it to me for free and I will see what my 'no more creative juice left' creatives can do with it and incorporate it'.
You may be done telling this story but making such poor statement and worsening them with rude comments to individuals is doing detrimental damage that you fail to foresee. You have earned a reputation of being a PH that can't handle more than one project at a time, 'Geet' viewers and now 'IPK' viewers will vouch for that! If it happens once, its coincidence but if it keeps happening there is a method to the madness!
And now you come out and state that your creatives have run out stories to tell, they have even attempted to copy obvious movie scenes to sustain episodes but because none of them is working, you want people to give you free stories!
Seriously ??? Do you not see the irony of this situation?? Are you caught in the wrong job? Writers have no story to tell, then why the hell do they call themselves writers? If your writers don't have a story to tell, the obvious solution is - 'GET NEW WRITERS'!!! There are some brilliant ones I myself have come across online who seem to have 20 different tracks to write about, based on the happenings of one episode! Hire new talent, instead of begging for free work!
How far are you willing to go in misusing the love your viewers have for your show?? You are asking viewers to give you stories for free, next will you ask for contributions for set development and costumes too? Though I don't mind contributing if that could mean Khushi gets some better clothes to eliminate those hideous tents she is adorned in!
Even though you are done telling this story, am sure will may want to tell many more in the future, but who will you tell them to if you keep pissed the viewers off?
I for one will never watch another show by you because it's too exhausting to invest time watching day in and day out and then be around to see the corpse of the show you once knew! And then to have disregard and arrogant attitude thrown at you by the makers who you help build and reach the highest they have.
A word of advice- be nice to the people on your way up, because you will meet them on your way down!!
Arjun
