Actress Mona Singh, who has been getting a lot of positive response to her streaming show ‘Kafas’, feels that the Indian television industry needs to change gear and move away from regressive content centering “kitchen politics, duplicates” and the famous theme of “coming back after dying”.
Mona, who plays the doting mother of a child artiste in ‘Kafas’, herself revolutionised Indian television with her portrayal of the titular character in the popular show ‘Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin’. While the other shows of that early and mid 2000s were talking about money to the tune of Rs 200 crores or Rs 500 crores, ‘Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin’ was a refreshing change that appealed to the large middle class audience.
Talking about the lost essence of Indian television in the pursuit of chasing and pleasing the larger audience, the actress told IANS: “It’s a chance (making massy shows) that people take. We still don’t know what is going to work or what is not going to work. If we knew then anyone wouldn’t be making bad content at all. When it comes to television, I think the makers tend to forget that the audience does get bored of the same kind of content.”
She further mentioned that churning out regressive content in the pursuit of pleasing the mass audience doesn’t always work and that “even the masses complain” about similar kinds of content.
She shared with IANS: “We should move out of kitchen politics, duplicates and the theme of dying and coming back. I think Indian television needs to start afresh. I’m sure the same thing will happen with OTT (falling prey to massy content) as well because huge volumes of content are being made. The makers should understand that it’s not right to underestimate our audience.”
‘Kafas’ is streaming on Sony LIV.
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