Indian Television from 1990s-2000s

I wonder that in spite of hearing everybody cribbing about the quality of television these days most people still end up enjoying the same kind of shows and rejecting the shows which attempt to break the mould barring few exceptions

The production values have definitely are top notch these days in the serials and some are almost on par with movies.But the quality of television shows has gone down with each passing day although the revenues and TRPs touched the roof

The reason for this rise has not been quality of shows but other factors.Economically the country has done better in the new millennium which means more income and hence more TV sets.Secondly peoples' lives became easier in terms of usual chores with the coming of technology be it in consumer durables,telecom or computers.Also the borrowing became easier and the overall streamlining of the entertainment business led to more channels and more shows.

Initially,most of the serials used to be weeklies and hence more time went into making an episode and hence the quality was better,also the producers knew that even if they go wrong with one episode their ratings can go down putting their show in jeopardy.But with coming of dailies producers got away with this since even if 2 out of 4 episodes are not good enough audience will not stop watching the show altogether.Also its human nature that you dont' form a habit doing a think weekly but daily.


If we look back to 90s most of us would agree the content was better and had more variety too.For every Tara there has been Kya Scene Hai,for every Hasratein there has been a Filmy Chakkar and so on.People looked forward to their respective days of telecast hence novelty factor was there too.But the same cant' be said of the saas-bahu serials of 2000s as most the plots were similar but with certain differences.Indeed they suffered eventually because of that and which has lead to some good content lately but still the situation has not changed much.No wonder some crime and comedy shows have started doing well lately but it is still to be seen if this shift is here to stay

One of the ways to improve the quality of content can be launching more niche channels.Niche channels exist now too but the national and bigger players should launch more niche channels, of course their have been steps like launching Star One to cater Urban Audience.

Television has a wider reach than films hence fragmentation of content is more relevant.
In films,for ex people have option of choosing a Gangs of Wasseypur or a Ek tha Tiger.The same kind of flexibility should also be available in case of television if there are channels of different genres like for Drama,Thriller,Comedy and all.

In order to make shows appealing to all kinds of audiences content is compromised at times and it also restricts choices of the audiences.Today a person interested in thrillers may end up watching some other shows too since there are only few shows of that genre.In this case increase in quantity of shows would better the quality too and its not right to blame the audiences too as without giving them other options its not right to blame them