A page from the personal diary of Saumya Tandon We have a lot of television shows these days but I always feel that somewhere down the line we are lacking in the concept and quality of programming. Hence, I felt I should talk about it as the guest editor at Tellychakkar.com. International shows like Friends, Two and a Half Men, Supernatural and Ghost Whisperer are extremely well-made. In fact, I miss yesteryear shows like Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne. Nowadays, the stories only revolve around a good looking man and an ugly looking woman, or short girls and tall boys and a widow. At times, I feel that these storytellers sit with a list of girls and boys and all they have to do is match the columns. Why can’t we simply make shows like Kakaji Kahin, Malgudi Days, Ek Kahaani and Vikram Betal. Those shows were simply beautiful. In fact, I enjoyed watching Sarabhai V/S Sarabhai. We all have known that TV is a very strong medium in our country as we are the highest TV viewing population. And probably that’s one reason why we see big Bollywood names coming on TV, be it Amitabh Bachchan or Aamir Khan. Today, a lot of money is being pumped into television which was not the case earlier when people worked on tight budgets and actors worked for peanuts. But now big production houses like Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Yash Raj Films are also making TV projects, which is wonderful. So when the medium is so powerful and everybody wants to be on it we need to make good content and get back actors and not college drop outs. These days when you watch TV you know that the person on the screen does not know to act. In fact, it’s only after a year of acting on screen that they learn to perform a bit. Seasoned actors can make a show beautiful and the best examples are Ram Kapoor and Sakshi Tanwar of Bade Achhe Lagte Hain. There are so many good small screen actors who do not have work today. I think television producers should get them back. As far as reality shows on the rube are concerned, they are a hit for first two seasons but then they stop making it big because they stop innovating. The audience gets used to a pattern hence the reality shows should keep coming up with new ideas with every season.