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Rohit Roy
It is an honour and a pleasure to be part of the Indian television fraternity. Whatever little I have achieved in life is thanks to television. It has given me and others popularity that we probably could have only dreamt about.
I have witnessed the TV industry really grow, be it in programming, the number of channels or the basic respect accorded to it. Now no one dares to call it cinema's poor cousin. If at all, it has flourished to become cinema's opulent cousin.
But in one aspect it still remains poor - programming and software content. It is a matter of great consternation for me and other actors/technicians who want to be involved in projects that are at par with international standards (not necessarily gloss) in terms of content. But since the last 5 years or more, there has been absolutely no improvement in the kind of programmes being dished out.
Every channel is trying to follow what they believe is their mantra of success based on their past records. One channel launches a game show and sure enough the others follow suit.
A reality show is launched and before you can say 'Jack' another channel jumps onto the bandwagon with its version.
Where is the originality of thought? Television is a medium where one can definitely be more adventurous. Even cinema is going experimental but the television industry seems to be stuck in a rut. Of course, once in a while there is a 'Jassi', a 'Sarrkkar' or a ' Nach Baliye'. But this accounts for less than .01 percent of the total volume of programmes. Also there is a dearth of subjects which leads to plagiarism. This, in a country with vast literary content and deep-rooted culture, is unbelievable.
It seems to be a vicious circle with content providers saying this is what channels want and channels, in turn, saying this is what the viewers want. How can a handful of people at the helm decide what an entire country needs to watch? This brings me to my point.
Let's try and give something new to the audience and let them decide whether they want to watch it or not. Let's stop being regressive and be a bit more progressive in thought and action.
This piece is definitely not a comment on any particular show but the entire machinery in general, the machinery that decides who watches what.God bless the TV industry. May we live long and bright.
CID
