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The New Stuff

So much to watch on television now!

I’ve been spending some considerable amount of time on television these days, 1 hour daily is definitely considerable as per my standards. Reason – prime one being my motive to avoid working on laptop till late night esp. after office hours due to health reasons, secondary being the intent to get involved in other activities beyond internet / work & third the most important being the fresh & interesting content on Indian Television now. For me television has never been an engagement medium at all, it’s long that I have watched anything with continual interest on television, thanks to the soaps showing bahus working in kitchen with kanjeevaram or bridal chiffon sarees, their 10kg gold jewelry clad look or 1 feet long bindi adorned faces, somehow like many other today’s generation Indian women even I could not relate to those ever conspiring saas-bahu serials at all. Trust me, the kind of strategies & conspiracies they make in those soaps, I’m sure such women (if at all they exist in real world) can make very good diplomats or high commission planner in Indian Embassy. To add to that the frustration of at least 1 million (or is it more?) reality shows running on each channel every day where people are either singing or dancing or bitching AND crying. By the word AND before CRYING I definitely mean that crying is an inclusive & not mutually exclusive activity in any reality show. Now whether you are dancing or singing or playing a game, you HAVE to cry, else your participation is not deemed fit enough for the winning candidature. Sigh!!!

A lethal combination of such “mera pati mera devta hai” soaps & “mujhe meri maa ke liye jeetna hai” reality shows was force strong enough to put me off television for quite some time now. I did watch few new concepts here & there like Ballika Vadhu on Colors but even there, I lost my interest because of its dragging content. So, of late even if I used to sit in front of television it was either with a book or with my laptop in hand. But some 10 days back, a cute girl “Antara” managed to grab my attention finally on Zee so much so that her innocent looking face made me put that book down & watch the serial intently till the end. The end of that episode made me curious enough to wait for its next episode & lo’ now I’ve been watching “Aapki Antara” continuously for last week & a half. I must say it’s a damn nice serial which Zee is telecasting these days at 8:30 pm. Not only this, there are many new programs on each channel now which in terms of presentation and content are far cry as compared to their old counterparts. There is Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya hi Kijo on Zee, Bhaskar Bharti, Ladies Special & Entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega on Sony and many others on channels like NDTV Imagine, Colors etc; surprisingly none of these are having the typecast indian saas, bahus or patis.

Thank god, finally Indian Television Industry has accepted the change in Indian Consumer’s taste! I had written about Sony re-branding on my marketing chit-chat blog earlier but well, in terms of content I think not only Sony rather the overall television industry has gone for a major facelift. I think soap producers have finally understood that today’s consumers prefer to watch a “Rock On” as against “Ek Vivaah Aisa Bhi” or a “Dostana” as against “Yuvraaj”. Like many other things, Indian consumer has undergone a change in their television viewing habit too and hence television producers need to keep up with times if they want to capture today's generation. As of now I’m loving this change & I just hope they keep on innovating to sustain this change in the long run too :-).
It's time for me to end this post & catch up on entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega now :-)

19 comments :

Tarun Goel said...

Indian naataks r real nautankeys :)
Back in DoorDarshan Days I used to watch Sammundar-Navy People ka Show.
I stilll remember that :)

Iya said...

Most of that souds latin and greek to me unfortunately..look at the coincidence,right when u were posting this, my tweet was - There is nothing worthwhile on the damn TV! i give up.My internet is much better, thank u!
http://twitter.com/iyamalhotra/status/2499824974

But yes, ur reasoning sounds valid, maybe i should give it another shot..

Nupur said...

Phew ! So I'm not alone who thinks those sas-bahu soaps are just crap !!! Good to know that i'm not abnormal to have avoided Tele for these serials !

But the whole point is look at the age of the serials.. They are still running young ! So the set of consumers who love that drama still exist in huge number, bad luck !

Well, now that you have mentioned "Apki Antara" I think I should check that for sure... Thanks for the feedback :)

Keep writing !!!

Maya said...

good to know that things are changing on television,, but i cant pull the courage to give it a try...

When my sister used to live with us, i had seen the crap that they make

Anonymous said...

every single person i talk to ..admits those soaps are fodder and reality shows are utter waste of time!! every single erson..and i just dnt knw how they still exist! doesnt the crew understand? wat they r enacting is rubbish? the sponsors? God knws..im happy without the TV!

Just call me 'A' said...

Oh television has change big time. i remember the doordarshan days. Look where TV is now. Just see the news...from plain news reading to sting operations and breaking news and so much of graphic on the weather channel. It's come a long way and still constantly changing

I'm on TV big time. If i'm home...the Tv is always on..even if I might not eb watching it dilligently. Got into this habit when I was livinh alone...the sound was comforting :)

Tall Guy said...

Thank God that Ekta's K-era on the television ended :D

Some good shows on TV!!

@nks said...

this is no good ...
why do people hate the best rated serials of all time...

"Kyki..." and "kahani.." were the pioneers which finally gave Indian Television a genre (more of a masala) directed towards the majority of television viewers, the Housewives...

They totally deserved that after finish with household work ... so they chose the afternoons and the late nights... And this is our hypocrisy criticizing those cult series, just because they don't interest us ...

Oh, forgive us, thy greatness "Ekta Kapoor", for we have sinned...

Kanupriya said...

@ Tarun: Doordarshan was great! I still remember kachchi dhoop, chitrahar, sammundar & many other such serials.

@ Iya: Oh yea, coincidence! Maybe try Sony or Zee for they have better content now. My motive is to get off internet at night so that I am not up doing work or surfing till late every night...

@ Screenage: yea try it, I think its different. Though not sure till when they will maintain this freshness.

Kanupriya said...

@ Uncommon: LOL, so u strongly against TV?

@ Verbi: There is still an audience & market for such programs, its just that we r not one of them.

@ Just Call me A: Absolutely agree...sea change from what it used to be :)

@ The survivor: yeah "ekta - k - era" seems to be ending now

Kanupriya said...

@ @nks: LOL...yea forgive thy greatness "ekta kapoor" for we have sinned :D

Bhargavi said...

i have steered clear of soaps of any form ,content and language.. just dont have the patience to watch it regularly..i have heard rave reviews for balika vadhu .. but again never gotten around to seeing it..

Nautankey said...

Err..I am of this TV? Whats that category. I know its existence only when there is some genuinely interesting matches or I want to see a DVD with better sound effects. Hope ur new found love proceeds well and doesn't ditch u :)

Waterfox said...

I am a little sceptical of the view that TV producers have 'changed'. Still the copy-paste syndrome exists. Earlier there were assembly line saas-bahu soaps now everyone has to make serials featuring young girls, younger the better!

After success of Balika Vadhu, this phenomenon has started. Apart from all these kiddy serials, Zee SaReGaMaPa (children special) is being hosted by 1 young female chatterbox and NDTV Imagine is starting a new serial 'Meera' featuring, whatelse but a young Meera!

ani_aset said...

I'm still wary of looking up stuff on tv..i am happy downloading rerus of my fav shows and watching it on my lappy..Last show that i followed was roadies and Dance India Dance :)

nice post

S.. Diva said...

he he.. ROFL
I wish I can get back to TV too, only if my tv is freed from the saas-abhu shit by my grany :-(

Miss M said...

Haha I sit and watch tv just so I can laugh at their loud make-up and hilarious dialogues and how always the lead lady of the show has to cry by the litres...I think it's too funny.

I wish they brought back some of the old shows like Malgudi days or Tu tu main main. Or even Hum paanch. At least those shows made sense with their humour.

Also, how long will it be before they ban Ekta Kapoor from making tv serials? Seriously. Someone needs to work on that NOW!

Renu said...

TV producers have a herd mentality..once a serial about a dark complexioned girl is hit, all the channels follow with something similar, or once a serial gets popular they start stagnating..the way it happened with Balika Badhu, so I watch any serial in the beginning only, then move on to other new ones:)
Doordarshan was best , but we ourselves destroyed it by going to these pop channels without any authenticity.

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