Regional dreams get bigger for Gujarati audience

Ankit Jain - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
It is the best of times with the television industry experiencing a multiplier effect. It is the age of opportunities, and it is the age of creative brain drain from the Gujarati television fraternity too.

It is the season of new year for artists from Gujarat vying for a niche in the television industry in Mumbai. It is another tale of two cities in the making depicting the Mumbai-Ahmedabad paradox with local channels making efforts to retain talent as well as maintain popularity index.

That the artists from Ahmedabad are exploring the entertainment frontiers in Mumbai is an undeniable fact. But what is noteworthy is the buoyant optimism of the vernacular channels in their pursuit towards making an indelible impact with their ethnic appeal.

"Even though most scripts are woven around Gujarati families, which are aired on channels at the national level, the true essence of the language and its ethnic appeal is a missing link," says Pratik Gadhavi, manager, ETV Gujarati.

It seems channels in Ahmedabad are making efforts to grab their share by adopting the strategy of 'think global and act local'.

"With new GECs forming a beeline of studios in Mumbai, the supply and demand curve is getting tilted towards the latter. Thus providing us with the opportunity to think about production alternatives in Ahmedabad," says Samir Gadhavi, a Ahmedabad based producer.

According to Samir Gadhavi, the exodus of fresh talent to Mumbai does not indicate that the season of darkness has arrived. "The serials aired are still popular and manage to cater to the entertainment needs of a regular viewer."

Reflecting the same optimism is veteran actress, Diana Rawal, currently acting in a soap named Sunderlal Sapna Wala, who says, "The scenario is not as bad as it is portrayed. Let us hope that more serials will be produced in Gujarat and enable retention of talent."

Teleserial director Deepak Bawaskar, who has directed soaps like Doctor Ni Diary and Khobo Bhari Ne Zindagi for vernacular channels, does not echo the same optimism. "There is dearth of professionalism. The need of the hour is a Gujarati telewriter who is a breed apart," says Bawaskar.

This apart, industry sources are of the opinion that Ahmedabad has now become a cost effective alternative for production due to high demand of studios in Mumbai. They are also of the view that the mere ethnicity of the content in Gujarati channels lets them gain an edge over their Hindi counterparts.

"Even though we have had experiences of exodus of the creme de la creme from Gujarati television industry, we have been able to retain substantial talent," adds Gadhavi.

When Televisionpoint.com talked to couple of regular viewers, we discovered that, indeed, Gujarati serials enjoy considerable popularity index.

Renowned producer J D Majethia says, "In the coming years, regional channels will experience cumulative growth. And still there is scope for improvement in terms of enhancing the mere aesthetic appeal of the soaps."

"The output that the production houses in Mumbai offer is simply impeccable and we need to spruce up in order to grab our respective share in the market," says Bawaskar.

Currently, as per TAM estimates of regional channels, viewership of these channels comprises three per cent of the market share as compared to the 80 per cent viewership enjoyed by national general entertainment channels. This increases the onus of popularising their programmes in regional channels.