The year 2001 has been singular for the television industry. Ever since its commercialisation in the early 80s, actors and technicians alike remained unrecognised for their hard work. Television awards were sidebars to film awards events and were dispensed with early on in the evening, as a way to keep the audience satisfied prior to the main event, and allow for the latecomers to trickle in. This attitude could largely be attributed to the fact that then the TV industry was made up of non-starters in films. But the advent of sattelite television and the exponential growth changed it all and gave India her first generation of TV professionals. But their work remained largely unrecognised. In the past, attempts have been made to give television its own set of awards, but none have really sustained themselves barring a few spasmodically. No one could have imagined a year ago, that for the first time ever the industry itself would recognise its peers, independently of course. Down the middle of the year, Indian Television Dot Com, a dedicated website of the medium held its first ever Indian Telly Awards. The year also saw the initiation of the Indian Television Academy (ITA), which is the industry’s first organised activity, with a membership constituency which promises to offer advanced learning opportunities to practitioners in the respective fields. ITA also gave the TV industry another taste of independent awards. In both instances, the stalwarts were honoured for their cutting edge presence, while the current achievers were lauded for their contribution. No one could have asked for a better boost. Doordarshan too had its in-house awards to validate the efforts of their own crew. It also needs to be mentioned that the Indian Television Dot Com recently organised Qalam 2001, the first ever forum for scriptwriting for television. The industry can now look to Indian Television Dot Com and ITA for more direction and advancement opportunities.

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Milestones & Pitfalls

Along with professional recognition came star adulation. Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) continued to draw unprecedented viewership thanks to its star Amitabh Bachchan. But India got her first taste of a TV icon - Amar Upadhyay, best known as Mihir Virani ‘died’ in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (KSBKBT). Viewers raised such an outcry that the producers, Balaji Telefilms ‘resurrected’ him with an accident, amnesia and recovery. Little wonder then a cola giant signed on Amar as a brand model. For Star TV, 2001 was a year of consolidation and retaining the numero uno slot. If its flagship programme KBC slipped from No 1 position, it gave way only to another Star show -KSBKBT. The popularity of KBC and the rigidity of not allowing children to participate in a show where money is the incentive, Star introduced KBC Junior, with no money but all the incentive - playing with Amitabh sir and gifts like computers and the cash prize being substituted with bonds. Hence KBC Junior, stole a lead over all the other licensees of the original Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Star TV took their K factor a little more seriously as they launched, Khullja Sim-Sim and Kya Masti Kya Dhoom. As the year wound up, so did KBC. Detractors had a field day, but Star is emphatic about the show coming back in 2002 in a new season.

Rival channels, i.e. Zee and Sony, tried to match the success of KBC, KSBKBT and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki. But met with some disaster. Sony’s fitting competition to KBC was the Shekhar Suman anchored Movers & Shakers, which had done a fair amount of shaking up pre-KBC. Instead of reinforcing and reinventing the show, Sony diverted its sights on another star attraction Govinda with Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke (JCPK). In true film parlance, JCPK got a good opening, but within a few weeks the TRPs crashed. However, the channel persisted, but clearly, Govinda was no match for the Bachchan. And soon JCPK went the same way as many other KBC challengers. And Shekhar Suman walked out of Movers & Shakers and Sony into Zee TV with Nilaamghar. Even the fledgling SABe TV tried its hand at a game show with Jab Khelo Sab Khelo in its afternoon slot and target audience being housewives, but the show was taken off air in six months. Game shows are not an isolated viewing, they are a family show.

The weekly soap, thanks to Stars flagship daily soaps KSBKBT and KGGK, took the back seat, as these family sagas grabbed a great many eyeballs. Channels and a few production houses connived to give the viewers more helpings of the same. Hence, every general entertainment channel looked like the other. No efforts were spared in the first half of 2001 to counter the popularity of KBC, KSBKBT and KGGK -- from juggling time slots of popular shows or the new shows that rival channels launched. Zee TV put up a fight with dailies like Yeh Dil Kya Kare and Chandan Ka Palna Resham Ki Dori, likewise Sony with Kahin Diya Jale Kahin Jiya, but they met with the same fate -- disaster. However, the weeklies out of the stables of Zee and Sony like Khamoshiya...Kab Tak and Hum Pardesi Ho Gaye, did better. But did the channels bank on that. The daily soap still remain a challenge.

Outstripped of its leading position by Star Plus and losing its number two ranking to Sony which banked heavily on shows like CID, Aahat, Heena and Boogie Woogie besides Bollywood blockbusters, Zee refurbished itself with a new programming team and looked to Sandeep Goyal to recapture the channel’s lost ground. Goyal went about revamping the channel’s programming. He took about 100 days to do so, he mastered a new look for Zee and brought in 24 new programmes which cut across all genres. This exercise was to give the channel the much-needed shot in the arm, with viewer-friendly programming. But within three months after the launch, most of the shows struggled to stay afloat. There were exceptions of course -- Neelamghar, Sarhadein, Justujoo, Koi Apna Sa and Chhoti Maa. Even Star had its share of duds in Kahin Kissi Roz, while Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand, Son Pari and Kangan have shown healthy ratings. But Sony’s Kusum attracted viewers and so did it other daily Kutumb which went on air two months ago and could well go up the charts, though not as well as Kusum. Both Zee TV and Sony undertook major overhauling tasks - Zee did it first with inducting new shows and a change of channel ID. Sony followed suit with a new look. But these at best were cosmetic changes. For Star did the same and no fanfare followed. They spent a major part of the year housekeeping as well. If new looks and fresh shows are what makes a channel no 1 then Zee and Sony have it in their hands.

While Star retained its No. 1 foothold, and Sony and Zee were preoccupied with getting there and falling into No. 2 and No. 3 positions respectively, the scenario lower down with the fledgling channels SABe TV and Sahara TV was that of survival. An attempt doubled with the closure of B4U. SABe TV resorted to Karishma Kapoor playing brand ambassador with their show Karishma Sabe Shaam Inam aapke Naam. After much struggling, wiser counsel now prevails - their flagship show has been a sitcom - Office Office which frequency that have upped to three times a week and building on that are developing a comedy band with a catchline "SABe TV - Come smile with us".

They would want to be seen as a relief (from saas-bahu conflicts) channel. For Sahara TV too it was a year of changing tack. Other than collaborating with software leaders like Cinevista, Creative Eye and BAG Films, it realised the need to have a public presence, they took the battle to hoardings and press ads, these along with a few well-orchestrated media events. The channel brought in the concept of alternative viewing each day of the week on the 8.30 pm band - like Draupadi on Mondays, Haqeeqat on Tuesdays, Helen’s small screen debut Do Lafzon Ki Kahani, Om Namo Narayana etc. The Mahesh Bhatt fronted Haqeeqat rewrote history for Sahara when it became the first new serial on any new channel to break the TRP barrier with an all India TRP of 1.6 and 8 TRPs in Mumbai, as per TAM findings. The other surprise being that it is a non-fiction show which dramatises human outrage incidents. Tried and tested programming could not be given a miss, and with Sunday Blockbuster Sahara TV introduced a collection of recently acquired new blockbuster movies, including many television premieres. It also changed the timing of the Sunday evening movie to 6.30 pm with the world TV premiere of Dhadkan and achieved 9.5 GRPs all India and 10.83 GRPs in the Hindi speaking belt, as per TAM. It is clear to Sahara TV’s creative team that they will cater to that viewer who wants something other than family soaps, and something different each day of the week.

In all this, Doordarshan has had its own share of problems brought on by them - they raised the heckles of the old and loyal producers and new ones over the issue of minimum guarantee money, hike in telecast fee and reduction in free commercial time. The producers too were left with no option but pull their shows off the air. All this despite the fact that Nine Gold which gave DD Metro a makeover at primetime also left DD for their ridiculous demands. No prizes for guessing who’s got the pie on the face. The regional channels had their pitfalls and among Zee’s Alpha brands, only Alpha Marathi made its presence felt besides ETV Marathi and ETV Telegu and DD Sahyadri.

While the latter band will need careful assessment in 2002, the focus will continue to be on the general entertainment channels. Current affairs channels were seen maximally during the WTC week. From none to three indegeniuos dedicated news channels is something to crow about.
The Bhuj disaster was the test case as the first relay was Doordarshan’s, Star News swung into action and gave an accurate, graphic, human picture of the tragedy. However, one thing that still eludes Indian television is the paucity of fresh concepts and quality production. The makers lay the blame with the channels’ obsession with daily soaps, which has had them gloss over content and quality. The daily can never replace the depth of the weekly, and the content and quality which follow the scramble for the top berth and its accompanying failures and non performance has resulted in a great many heads rolling at various channels. Will 2002 portend a year of sea change vis-à-vis policies, focus and content? That remains to be seen.

—Piroj Wadia
pirojwadia@hotmail.com