I am an avid TV watcher. But increasingly, I have to resort to Star World, Star Movies, HBO or AXN to satisfy my thirst for comedy, romance, suspense action and drama. I would like to know why you are unable to make one show that’s worth watching for a 30-something smart, intelligent English-speaking viewer like me.
Just copy from the foreign ones, like your big brother Bollywood does. But I guess you can’t even excel in that. Compare Masterchef India with that of Australia — the only thing that drew my attention was Akshay Kumar’s ample gums in the desi version!
Well, you also tried to ape Fear Factor, and look what happened to Khatron ke Khiladi — the celeb host took to cooking!
In a country where sensational crimes find front page display almost on a regular basis in newspapers, Indian tele-show makers have failed to be inspired by even one of them. Kaali on Star Plus, supposedly inspired by the Ruchika Girhotra case, is a sorry depiction of a story. If made properly it could have kept the viewers glued.
Made on similar lines, FOX’s depiction of the 2003 Madhumita Shukla murder case, where a UP cabinet minister and his wife were arrested, in its show India Investigates on Friday night was brilliantly put together. The use of live footage and news reports, alongside the reenacted scenes, was bang on. Anyone who didn’t know what the case was about would know even the minutest detail because credibility was drawn from a constant narration from the man who was in charge of the investigations at the time.
Surprisingly, it was the brainchild of BAG Films, an Indian production house. It is the same production house that does the silly, childish caricature of a crime show on Star News, Sansani, which I last heard was a hugely popular show. You can’t help but wonder how the same team can produce such drastically different shows.
Compare Sony’s C.I.D. with CSI on AXN, or Modern Family with Saas Bina Sasural — when will Indian TV producers think out of the box?
Yes, an average housewife will tune in but I bet you have lost hundreds of viewers to English channels that now beam shows with subtitles. Even my 55-year-old mum prefers to watch Castle and Modern Family with me than catch Chajje Chajje Ka Pyar on Sony.
And it’s not just crime or action shows that are below standard on Indian TV. Compare a comedy show like Comedy Circus with Star World’s Two and Half Men or How I Met Your Mother. While the comedy is crass and loud in the former, in the latter it’s so subtle that when you catch it, you remember the line even a day later.
Makers of such inane TV shows please take note. TV viewing should, I believe, give some food for thought to viewers. Something that an intellectual human being can connect to and respond — a medium that is so strong should also have the ability to change, modify and keep up with the times. In a country where half the population is either in metros or aspires to be in one, rooftop stories, big family-happy family stories, rags to riches tales and love lasts for ever sagas (Example Choti Bahu on Zee TV) should just take a polite bow and quit.
TV people are you listening?
