Indian Television is going through a tsunami of changes. The medium has been in the course of a metamorphosis wherein every other month a new trend is formed.
The latest fad to hit the telly town is the overpowering digital medium. Shadow of the new media has already started to spread over the tantalizing mainstream industry. Just in this year itself, all major leading faces that were once cherished on the idiot box have already shifted to the digital media. With just few months left for this year to come to an end, most of the TV fraternity has tasted the blood of the new media and a juicer blood is always the preferred one. Though in its cradle stage, digital has been getting a thunderous acceptance.
TellyChakkar.com did an extensive study to understand the reason why TV actors are moving to the digital medium. The research gave us a practical and valid observation points. We list down the five possible reasons hereby,
1. Monotonous Daily soaps
While speaking to all the actors, one strong point that came out during discussion was the fact that the content on Indian TV has got so rigorous that one feels bored while doing it. There are numerous shows on television currently. However, all the shows are similar to each other in terms of story, content and illogical drama. The age old ‘saas-bahu’ dramas, the oddly supernatural themes and the never-ending bizzare love stories are just the same wine poured in different glasses. One can literally count shows that have the same rigged storyline and tracks. TV actor Additi Gupta who has been part of many digital shows once said to TellyChakkar.com, “In TV you just have to give four expressions and that is it!”
Her one-liner supports the backbone of the issue.
2. No work for Biggies / No buyers
If you observe it, none of the biggies are working on television right now. Female actors post the age of 30 are not getting quality work plus the channels are skeptical on spending money on seasoned actors. An industry insider revealed to us, “experienced actors charge more money than a newbie. Today, TV shows are a huge risk and could be plugged off anytime. Therefore a channel only puts limited money in their show. If you observe a very famous GEC, only has two to four experienced actors in their shows, other than that all their shows have fresh faces.” Talented TV actor Asha Negi who has been off from fiction shows since quite a long time revealed to us, “honestly, TV has nothing interesting to offer me. The kind of roles I want to do, I’m not getting them. It’s always the age old dramatic roles.”
3. Digital is liberating & experimental
While TV is getting rigorous with its content, digital is currently in its flourishing stage. If you see the content on digital arena there are curators who are experimenting with a lots of stuffs. Meanwhile on TV in the rat race of generating more episodes the content is suffered badly while actors never get a chance to experiment. Actors on TV are either romantic, positive or negative! While shooting for his short film Iqbal Khan stressed upon this topic, “Digital medium is liberating, you can experiment here since you don’t have the ratings issue.” Shama Sikander in a chat with TellyChakkar revealed, “After one point you don’t feel like doing the same old things and you want to experiment.”
4. Short time commitment
It’s not a secret that TV shows go on for eons and shooting them takes a toll. TV actors on daily basis spend more than 12 hours on set for shooting. Also, shooting for such a long time for a single character takes all the juice and excitement out of one’s life. It leaves no space to grow as an actor. On the other hand digital are for shorter and limited episodes only. Actors get a chance to live in different characters with every other project. In an interview with TellyChakkar.com TV actor Radhika Madan also pointed out the same point. He shared, “Finite series are something that excites me. A show like 24, where you shoot like a movie and then get out of a character, you don’t have to play one role forever.”
5. Digital is the future, TV is dying
The viewership that TV used to enjoy once has become a past only. Today rarely shows are crossing the five point ratings. Sony TV’s Kuch Rang Pyaar Ke is the best specimen about the whole point. The finite series didn’t enjoy great ratings on TV however on YouTube the show went viral. Each episode of the daily crossed two million views. The online craze of the show was such that the makers had to bring the program back with another season. In her interview with TellyChakkar, Radhika Madan shared, “web-series are doing so well currently but on TV nothing really exciting is there barring a few shows. Web-series are going all bold while TV is still attached to saas-bahu drama. Today, it is important to show the reality. You need to show the audience what is happening you just can’t show them any non-sense.”
While there are some actors who still believe that mediums don’t really matter but the shift are quite obvious these days. Well, this is our perspective comment down what you think is the reason behind the drastic shift.
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