According to industry estimates, in 2000, a total of 43 channels generated a demand for 40,000 hours of original content with 37 million homes wired to cable television. Statatics show that a family watches television together in India, and hence programming is reflecting the approach of appeal to this audience with an increase in dramas and soap operas about family life.
TV producers are looking at globalization. Ekta Kapoor, managing director of Balaji Telefims, producer of India's most successful soap operas emphasizes, "We must see how our content can monetize the ethnic international audience". While regional language programming continues to cater to the linguistic diversity of the Indian television audience, the scope is broadening to incorporate new services such as internet-over cable, pay per view (this has been approved by the Indian parliament but the bill is yet to be enacted), video on demand and cable telephony. In fact, in the past year, various TV conferences held around India have focused on continuing changes in Indian television and the cable industry that have incorporated the necessity of globalization. According to reports, in 2001, more than half the growth in cable and satellite homes came from the rural and semi-urban areas, indicating an increasing penetration of cable into less populated regions and What to do NOW if you want to be in film and Television?
Watch movies, watch television, read books about both, check out websites, trade magazines, try and understand what is working and why. If you know people in the industry, talk to them and try and get as much information from them as Possible. "And that doesn't mean just watching hit films or popular serials. If you watch what has failed, that's also part of your education. Formal education is one thing but when you sit with an audience in a cinema hall and watch a film, you realize down to a very micro level, what is being appreciated and what is being rejected - right from acting, writing, music, the locations, even the clothes. In particular, read Spirit of Lagaan, the book about the making of the film 'Lagaan '. Another important activity which will give you a very good idea about what films and televisions are all about, are film clubs that run in colleges and also film festivals like Mumbai International Film Festival, for Documentary and Short Films which are a very important par:! and a very significant factor in appreciation of films.
Some books which you can go through are:
Sight and Sound magazine by British Film Institute. Our Films Their Films - Satyajit Ray A Critical View - Andre Bazin, Francois Truffaut.
Read screenplays of movies to get an idea of how a screen play is written. A few of the sites where you will get these are:
http://www.dailvscript.com/
http://www.cinema-sites.com/
http://www.awesomefilm.com/
http://sfv.iv.ru/
“If you want to be in films or television, you must watch a lot of films and television so that you understand what works with the audience and what doesn't, 1/ says director Kunaf Kohli”
Jeena
isi ka naam hai ...
Ekta Kapoor is the creative director and founding force behind Balaji Telefilms which created 23 of the top 50 TV shows in India. The first woman entrepreneur to receive the coveted E& Y Start-up Entrepreneur of the year award in India, she has been named one of the 50 most powerful communicators in Asia by Asiaweek magazine.
Not all fairy tales have an easy start. There is a struggle after which the hard work pays off. The same is true for Ekta Kapoor too. Despite a family that was into films, the thought of facing the camera never interested her. The concept of being1)ehind the camera, however, intrigued her. Ekta is a confident young woman who knows exactly what she wants. "Is it wrong to pre~nt tradition and middle class values? I know of no rule that says I have to have extra marital affairs in my serials! My serials show women in a strong and positive light, who have their values intact but also have a mind of their own. The seven-year-old company has moved from clocking 8.5 programming hours per day in January 2000, to 33 hours in January 2001".
Ekta Kapoor has rewritten the script on TV entertainment for the masses. She has created more than 20 soaps on 10 major Indian networks; a comedy series 'Hum Paanch' that she created, ran for five years till the current K sorios wilh famous serials like 'Kkusum' which features on Sony TV or 'Kkyunki Saas Bhi ... ' which runs on Star TV. The Indian showbiz community watches Ekta's every move, and older, more experienced producers are quick to copy any new Kapoor concept. She continues to produce absorbing dramas - whether about an ambitious tycoon or a beautiful but scheming wife or a 70-year-old grandmother looking for a job - that consistently strike a chord with viewers across the subcontinent.
“The rich do not need values, the poor do not have time for them. It is middleclass values that my serials are about."
Career Launcher
(My Dream Career Series)
