Small screen’s big moment

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Now that acting heavyweight Amitabh Bachchan and critically acclaimed director Anurag Kashyap have come together for a fiction show on television, the small screen it seems is readying itself for an imminent revolution of sorts. Incidentally, this is the first time that a superstar of Bachchan’s stature will essay a fictional character on TV.
Big B’s no stranger to television, having hosted several seasons of the popular quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati, but making an acting debut was prompted by his desire to do “anything and everything that has to do with the screen, before I get too old”.
“When I began KBC, people said that the attempt to enter television was suicidal. Even now I want to do something different and challenging and Anurag has given me that opportunity,” he said.
He added that television itself had grown incredibly as a medium. “TV is growing up and will soon be as big as cinema. For me, there is no such thing as a big or small screen.”
He proved to be a game changer when he first hosted KBC and soon other Bollywood biggies followed suit. Now that Anurag Kashyap has also joined hands with him, the show could set a milestone for Indian television industry and write new rules for the medium.
“The show will certainly attract a lot of attention and viewership given that Big B is headlining the cast, but how good it is and how it changes the rules of the game, will depend on how consistently good the content and style of the drama, and whether it grips the collective emotion of the nation,” feels actor, writer and theatre director Vivek Mansukhani.
Advertising consultant Milan Vohra grew up watching Western TV dramas and loves shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Mad Men, Suits, Mentalists, or The Wonder Years. The only thing that’s stopped her, she tells us, from watching Indian fiction TV is not the language but the lack of stories and characters that interest her. “However, now the time seems right. Improved content has changed the viewership of original Indian TV fiction. People are waiting to receive good content. The medium doesn’t matter. And with an actor like Amitabh Bachchan, there will be millions ready to give the show a fair viewing. This will give boost to the content-driven segment of the small screen and its viewer base will definitely grow,” she says.
Arnab Ray, author and popular blogger who loves to take sarcastic digs at the entertainment industry on his blog, explains that TV is the next big frontier, where the money is. “In the US, that is definitely the case for the last few years, with TV series like Games of Thrones, Walking Dead and Mad Men being much more influential than most of what the Hollywood film industry has produced. In India, I believe there is a huge target audience (an elite audience, I should add, the type that advertisers want to target) for ‘good TV’. And this could be the first in that direction,” says Arnab.
In the West big stars dabble in both television and films, but here it’s completely unheard of. With Big B making a start, Anil Kapoor will soon be making his acting debut on TV with 24, an adaptation of the hit thriller series about a counter-terrorism agent. Kapoor, who doubles up as the remake’s producer and lead actor, is making sure that it turns out to be the biggest thing ever to hit the small screen here.
Could these two new shows mean that other Bollywood A-listers may jump on to the bandwagon and give acting on TV a serious try?
“If a few of those who can make time do so, there is no harm in this. It will also give TV actors a chance to work with well-established cinema actors. Healthy interaction, I feel,” says Mansukhani. He adds that apart from the scripts and execution, the big stars need to be more trusting of the medium of television, and see themselves as “actors” rather than “stars”, who need to remain exclusive to the big screen.
“If they give equally good performances for television, it will only increase their body of good work, and help them hone their skills further. They should not feel that they are ‘lessening themselves’ in any way by appearing on TV,” he wraps up.