Indian television - A debate

I recently read the interview where Gautam Hegde (notable writer in television) said and I quote - " It is not that we don't have the required talent in India. We simply don't have the time to pull out a good episode"

Hey evn I read da intrview coz its Ganesh Hegde's 😉.Difficult question 2 answer! U c we have adapted ourselves like this. Evryday we w8 4 our fav show. And on weekends its jst plain damn boring.

It's a no brainer for me. I would rather have quality over quantity any day. I came home for vacation and my mom, grandmom and granddad are hooked to zindagi gulzar hai. I watched an episode with them and its very similar to our sensibilities with I'm sure the same kinda constraints that plague indian shows but the quality is amazing. Thats possible because its a weekly. I think tv has kind of become background noise nowadays. Nobody takes out an hour to watch it with excitement. That maybe because the quality of content is so bad and even if you keep shuffling the channels and just watch the show for 10 min you know the gist of the story and its not like its going anywhere. Tomorrow is another day its gonna air. Its a vicious cycle. Now the indian audience are used to this way because channels in the first place dished out such shows(with high dramas) to grab eyeballs and they cant get out of it now. Cue: teri meri love stories, it did very poorly and had to be pulled off air, other shows on sony, etc.

Originally posted by: tnusredey

Hey evn I read da intrview coz its Ganesh Hegde's 😉.Difficult question 2 answer! U c we have adapted ourselves like this. Evryday we w8 4 our fav show. And on weekends its jst plain damn boring.

We have seen so many bloopers over da years dat now we overlook them.😆

Its definitely better if we get 2 see our favorite shows in seasons. In dat case actor will not quit randomly. Bt it wil b definitely difficult 4 us 2 adapt 2 such things.

'course th quality suffers,,,but th channels too promote this rat race by pressurising PHs n CVs over TRPs etc n so many tyms we see copycat shows or tracks on tv!!!...remembr a while back every1 on telly was getting cancer n then came this kid track ..wen every show produced lil cute (or not so cute) kids!!!😕

I DONT THINK PEOPLE WIL ACCEPT THE WEEKLY BASIS SHOW THEY PREFER DAILY SHOWS ONLY AND NOW WE GET THAT HABIT TO WATCH SHOWS EVERYDAY SO NOW ITS DEFFICULT
ABOUT BLOOPERS EDITING WE ALWAYS TALK EVEN ME TOO BUT WE SHOULD UNDERSTAND THEIR PROBLEM THE LACK OF TIMING IS THE MAIN REASON FOR SUCH BLOOPERS
I DONT WANT QUALITY PRODUCT EVERYDAY BECAUSE IN REALITY ITS NOT POSSIBLE AT ALL SO OCCIASONAL GREAT SCENE I WIL CHOSE BUT THEY SHOULD TRY TO GIVE THEIR BEST
AFTER ALL THE SCENCE WHICH ATTRACT MANY PEOPLE TOWORDS THE SHOW BECAUSE WE KNOW THEIR R SO MANY PEOPLE WHO WATCH SHOW BECAUSE OF THE CONTENT AND GREAT STORY AND SCENES NOT FOR ACTORS AND ALL

I still don't get why the audience has to compromise on quality.

Firstly, Awesome debate topic! :) Its something I have been thinking about everytime I watch a soap on indian telly.

Originally posted by: Rockerchic

So a few questions for you guys.
1)Do you think Indian television should shift to a weekly basis? Or do you think that daily soaps are best suited for an Indian audience?
=Actually the indian audiences are very attached to the daily soaps, its pretty obvious from the way we can't even find the weekend enjoyable without our favorite tv show(yes, im included in this)
Sudden change to weekly basis will not be welcomed by the indian telly audience. Few years back, Yash raj films ventured into the indian television and introduced many new shows (Mahi Way, Rishta.com, Powder,etc) with intresting storyline, good character growth and it was so different. Each show had such unique story in it, if one was a romcom then the other was crime drug related show and frankly they showed good television!
But you know the reason why it was a fail? Because these shows aired only one hour, one day per week. And not many would wait for an entire week for an episode. When they have their daily shows at the same timing, they wouldn't bother to catch up with one show that comes only once a week. They crave more than just once a week because they aare used to daily 20 minutes of entertainment.
And also, Indian audience is not ready for modernized or american type tv shows.

2)Put in another way - Do you want quality product every single episode or are you fine with getting the occasional great scene as long as you get to see your favourite characters everyday?
=Quality product episodes!
I am so eager for the day when indian telly can match up to the standards of international telly.
I want to see quality product, good storyline, great character build up and attention to detail. In short, I want improvement in writing of the storyline and characters. That's my major issue with indian telly, they don't focus much on the writing and portrayal sometimes but can't blame them they have to show a lot in just 20 minutes.
But still I really do wish I could see a show which doesn't have too many loopholes or bloopers or character assassination.

I may be hungry for delicious Asya moments everyday but sometimes I wish it would be better to get good quality and quantity episodes rather than just 5 minutes of a great scene with rest 15 minutes filled with poor and messed up storyline.

And like the person above me as suggested, they could film these episodes in advance. That way they have the advantage oof planning out the story properly.

Originally posted by: Shell16

I still don't get why the audience has to compromise on quality.

. Why can't we have a quality daily show?

. Why do they need to film so close to the date the episode is on? I have heard that they sometimes r still filming the night before...then of course they are going to have editing and other bloopers and issues.

. If they were ahead by a few weeks they could spend more time on quality, writing, story, editing and what not.

. I like the idea of taking a break and coming back with season 2/3/4 etc. but only if they have a good story to tell.

I don't think the audience should have to put up with whatever they dish out and accept stupid excuses from people like Gautam Hedge! Come on man show pride in your work.

I agree Indian tv is taxing but its been like this only since ages..
I personally would prefer seasons each season having around 100 epis n then after a break another one n not like India where one has 2 work 4 years n years without a break