The ever-present conflict between ‘content dictated by the commerce’ in television industry and the ways in which this conflict can be suitably resolved was debated at a panel discussion on “The Home Box Office: Challenges and Opportunities for TV”.
The debate, comprising well-known producer T.G. Thyagarajan, who runs Sathyajothi films, Krishnan Kutty, Head – Disney India (Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi), producer Sujatha Vijaykumar, actor Y. Gee. Mahendra and actor and producer Khushbu Sundar, was held at the CII’s Dakshin South India Media and Entertainment Summit here on Sunday. The panel was moderated by Navaneeth L.V., Chief Executive Officer, THG Publishing Pvt Ltd.
While there were complaints about lack of freedom to make what they want and restrictions imposed by television channels, the channels’ perspective was that they had to get involved in the production as they take on the entire financial risk.
Raising the issue of lack of diversity in content on television, Mr. Mahendra said the content on television only revolves around family drama (mega-serials). “Genre like humour, thriller, and science fiction — have been forgotten by the television producers. Every television serial is about family drama,” he said. The stories could be finite and confined to just 150 episodes or so.
Ms. Khushbu agreed with him saying that while the television is primarily a women-centric space, there needed to be a change in content and influx of more women as writers and recalled how she enjoyed watching actor Kate Winslet’s recent television hit, Mare of Eastwood.
“We, as creators, want to move with the times but the amount of interference from the channel forces us to listen to them. If the channel takes up the responsibility when the results are not good, it will be much better. Though we say it is women-centric platform, women need to be more forthcoming and create content for television,” she said.
Mr. Thyagarajan said that producers who work in television do not have the ‘creative freedom’ that they enjoy while making films. “Initially, television producers owned the time slots and back then, we focused on the content. The entire responsibility for the success of the programme was vested with us. We focused on the script, production expenses and revenues used to depend on the success of the programme. But, subsequently, over the years, the concept changed and the programmes are being funded by TV channels and we don’t own intellectual property. The channel restricts us on what we produce. We would like to try different themes and concepts, but we are restricted. Good serials can be a competition to the OTTs provided we have the freedom.”
Responding to the criticism, Mr. Kutty said, “Most programmes are completely funded by channels and we take the entire financial risk. We make family dramas and we are proud of it. We are not ashamed of it. Our audiences love family dramas. Why do they make superhero films? Because audiences are liking it. Right now, with respect to OTT, it is wait and watch. Certainly, the convenience and ability to create different kinds of stories makes this space extremely exciting. What we are waiting for is a consistency of hits (of products) that really appeal to broad set of audience.”
