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So much to watch on television now!

July 6, 2009
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 🙂

Balika Vadhu : Finally there is something to watch on TV

September 22, 2008
Ah, after a long time managed to reach home today early at sharp 8 pm, not bad considering that it was Monday today 🙂 and the first thing which I did was switch on Colors Channel on television. Now TV and me! Quite unlikely, but yeah I did so happily and was glad that finally I would get to catch on “Balika Vadhu” on its normal time today otherwise either I will have to catch it in late night show or on Saturdays when they repeat the whole week story at one stretch. Isn’t it sounding strange that I am talking of catching up on some television soap? Well its definitely sounding strange to me atleast!!!!!!

I have been planning to express my thoughts about this particular television soap since long, but somehow never managed to do so. I think after a loooong time there is some program on television which has got me hooked on to TV again, its Balika Vadhu which airs on Colors channel from Mon-Fri at 8 pm. Well, I hardly get to see it at its normal time but this serial is so damn addictive that I wait to catch up on its late night repeat telecast. This soap is about a very different but real life theme, its about child-marriage and this issue has been portrayed in such a sensitive way that it just leaves you spell-bound as a viewer. The main protagonist Anandi is an eight year old girl who has been married to almost equal aged Jagdish and the soap shows Anandi’s transition from a child to a bahu in such a poignant way that it just stirs and shakes you from deep within. The innocence of Anandi just makes you wonder how these child marriages must be affecting lives of so many girls like Anandi. All the characters have done a wonderful job and they all look so real, be it the role of Anandi played by Avika Gaur or the role of Dadisa played by Surekha Sikri, honestly speaking Surekha Sikri has done an amazingly authentic role so much so that sometimes you feel like hitting the screen after seeing her. Infact today when I was watching the serial I get this SMS from one of my friends who was also watching today’s episode saying she feels like smashing dadisa right now :-). See, I’m not the only one who feels like this 🙂

So, its not only me rather many of my friends and colleagues as well who have got hooked onto this serial and trust me this list includes some guys as well :-). This serial has definitely converted lots on non-TV watchers into TV watchers again! Well, you need to watch it to agree to my this strong statement. No wonder this serial has managed to score such a high TRP of 4.22 in just 3 months only leaving lots of nonsensical saas bahu operas behind. I only hope it remains as engaging and gripping as it is now and not turn into yet another television trash in times to come.

Imagine, another one as NDTV imagine

December 14, 2007

Today saw web banners of NDTV imagine all across main internet publishers. Well, the banner surely raised curiosity & made me click the links immediately and oh yet another entertainment channel & that too with nothing new L… same old daily soap concept. Though I was aware of NDTV launching 3 new channels in entertainment & movie segment but still after seeing the programming details of the channel on its website, I personally got disappointed… same story soap concept, musical reality show & then dance reality show etc…Aren’t we done to death with saas bahu sagas & reality shows? Well, the formal announcement of NDTV new channels always said fresh entertainment but the sneak preview on the website definitely promises nothing like that. Maybe once the channel is live, we can judge its best.
Well, lot many channels got launched during the last 5 to 6 years & Indian Television Industry has surely seen an explosive growth. Infact its one of the fastest growing industry in India, with more than 300 channels launched in last one & half decades. The industry is surely saturated as far as channel concepts & programming are concerned but still in last few months, we have again seen quite few new channel launches. Despite the clear cut advantage lying with first movers like Star, Sony & Zee since years, new set of biggies like UTV launched Bindass & INX launched 9X entertainment & 9Xmusic in recent past!!! Gosh… too many me-too channels with same kind of programming! Isn’t it sort of ENTERTAINMENT OVERDOSE for Indian television viewers???

Media Over Hype

August 4, 2006

I was watching a TV news channel showing “special coverage” on revelation of Terrorists’ plans in India. After every news item, the clipping for this upcoming “special program” was flashing in a very sensational way claiming some hindi phrases meaning “terrorists’ plan revealed” & blah blah. With genuine curiosity, I started to watch the program but to my disgust, I realized soon that it was totally an over hyped program as there was no concrete proof or facts on which that program was based. It was all on the basis of some assumptions & suppositions, for e.g., nowhere the program used statements like, “humein yeh pata laga hai… (We came to know about this), rather the whole language was humein yeh shak hai ki or humara ye anumaan hai ki… (We assume that, we suppose that…). To add to that they were showing stuffs like, “we think that some famous people like Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan etc. might be on terrorists target” or “we think that terrorist can target some premier organizations like X, Y, Z”!!! I mean why are they flashing those assumed targets on Prime News Channel? I think this way they aren’t showing their capabilities rather they are giving more ideas to terrorists & anti-social elements. Even if terrorists wouldn’t have thought of such targets, then too by revelation of such assumptions & hypothesis publicly can give clear hints to terrorists about people & organizations which can be targeted. Also it creates unnecessary chaos & fear in the minds of general public working in such organizations. Its good to make public aware of the facts so that everyone can be alert but unnecessary sensation creation & over hype by media is doing more harm than good to public.

Media over hype has become a raging fad these days. There are so many examples where media presents the story in such scandalous way that it gets on to my nerves. Rakhi Sawant kissing Mika??? Did that story need so much of time & coverage on all news channels? I was personally irritated to the maximum level possible by seeing those clippings again & again on all news channels. That story was totally absurd & never deserved such an attention by media at all!!!
The story of Prince, it was indeed very bad for the kid & his courage to survive in that pit was really praiseworthy. All of us wanted him to be rescued & nobody would like any such tragedy to happen to such a small kid, but what was the need of all those hype of direct telecast by news channels, showing some unnecessary interviews, then some channels announcing free education to the kid, some announcing cash rewards etc. etc. etc… Suddenly all such channels decided to cover it soooo extensively & announcing such huge rewards!!! Wasn’t that too much??? I wonder if all other poor kids who would be in Prince’s neighborhood might have got inspired to fall in similar pits so that they can also deserve such media attention & huge rewards from channels & politicians.
Another over hyped coverage which comes to my mind right now is “Aishwarya Rai-Abhishek Bachchan” matrimony alliance prospects. I can’t forget all those interviews by pundits discussing their horoscope details & news correspondents talking so intently to those pundits for the kundli matched details. That was so melodramatic & so over hyped by all these news channels. I think if Aish & Abhishek would have been watching TV that time, then such coverage would have made even them switch off the TV immediately.


Media is meant for making public aware of the right news & happenings in the environment. It is meant for making people knowledgeable & informed of their surroundings. Almost all the news channels are available 24×7 now with an intention to provide us the right info anytime of the day, but I think despite their good intentions, now-a-days most of the time such news channels are messing up their good work because of this over hype & too much sensationalism. As they say excess of anything is bad, in the same way all this overload from news channels is just resulting in their loss of image & increased doubts on authenticity of the info provided by them.