Indian Television driven by TRPs not stories
(No Ratings Yet)For a veteran television actor with several popular serials to his credit, Sachin Khedekar is pained to see the shape that TV programming has taken - with TRPs and not storyline being the driving force.
“It’s a monster. It makes money for a lot people, but unfortunately from being a writer’s medium, it has become a TRP driven medium,” says Khadekar, who has worked in serials like ‘Imtihaan’, ‘Sailaab’ and ‘Astitva - Ek Prem Kahani’.
He says that stories start off with different plots initally but ultimately take the saas-bahu turn. “Programming today is definitely regressive.” Earlier people watched serials because of a character. Unfortuantely today the camera does the acting. It’s never stationary,” he quips.
Though Khedekar has dabbled with theatre, films, television and of late advertising, he is best known as a serious actor. He’s trying hard to shake off the senstive lover-father image but says niches are hard to break.
“If I keep refusing the roles, I’m going to be thrown out of the industry very soon,” he confesses adding “I hope some director will trust me with a comedy someday.” Khedekar says for sake of variety he is doing advertisments. “I think it’s a challenge to convey a product story with an expression in four to six seconds flat. ”
He is also donning the hat of an anchor for the first time. “I have deep admiration for the likes of Derick O’brien and am trying my best to ape them,” says this envoirnment engineer who will host ‘Chaamatkaar’. “It was like a refresher course in Science and I enjoyed it thoroughly, the goof-ups included,” says this envoirnment science engineer. In Shayam Benegal’s ‘Bose’, he played the title role and when asked would it have been more relevant to if it were made in a ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ or ‘Rang De Basanti’ style, Khadekar says “no. I think it is equally important to document historical characters . A studied, intellectual point of view is essential.” “This is not to say that straddling the commercial aspect is not important or that charming films are bad,” he says.
He deftly avoids any question on whether the film would have been more relevant if Bengal had taken a stand on whether Bose is alive or dead. ” I think you should ask the director.” Khedekar does admit though that the 20-crore film got an “apology of a release with only 23 prints being circulated.” Talking about the reason behind the relative lack of success for historicals in India, he says “we have to evolve our audience for cinema beyond glossy love stories and foreign locales.” he says adding that they have to be pitched on a a certain scale. “A ‘Mangal Pandey’ or Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’ have to be mounted large canvas to pull audience,” he explains.
So what the one trend in cinema and television that excites him. ” Success of cinema like ‘ Mr and Mrs Iyer’ , ‘Omkaara’, ‘Maqbool’, 15th Park Avenue shows that Infotainment wave is the next big thing.”
Is there any circumstance of a character that he would never wish for himself ? “I’d never like to be in the shoes of a villian in a commercial film or a Prisioner of War in ‘Astitva- Ek Prem Kaahani’,” he says after much thought.
At the moment Khedekar’s is shooting for two Marathi films while ‘Kudiyon Ka hai Zaamana’ and Amol Palekar’s ‘Thang’, both starring the actor in a prominent role await theatrical release. Khedakar is also travelling to London where he will star in a play ‘Baat Pashmine Ke’, a tribute to the legendary Gulzar.
— PTI
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