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Small is BIG now
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Year 2004 has seen a steady pour of Hindi film actresses to the small screen, an offshoot of 2003 in full blossom now, observes SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY.
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EVER FANCIED stepping in to the shoes of the ideal TV bahu - Tulsi or Parvati? Or, what about plain Jane Jassi, sad Pammi and mad Kareena?
Being a regular watcher of their on-screen actions and the windfall it obviously showers on them, many of you won't mind switching roles, isn't it? For, it would not only duplicate that instant name, fame and bank balance, (things that are so important by today's popular index) surely would it unbolt a window as well to peek in to the coveted film world. No need to repeat here that depending on your wish list, TV can today indeed take you places. (After all, why do you think there are such long queues to participate in the popular circus called talent hunt shows on the tube.)
Leaving you to your hopes, while most of these small screen divas are seen training their guns to land up in their logical end - Bollywood, what has become an interesting pattern now is many a film actresses are increasingly being spotted taking telly space. Particularly so in 2004. Like you wannabes, they too are eager to put a finger into this Great Indian Pie called tele-shows. Layers of make-up, mangal-sutra dangling, designer saris and loaded dialogues. Whether you are equally charmed by them as the Tulsis and Parvatis, is another issue, but trooping in steadily they certainly are. Beginning mid-2003 by Madhuri Dikshit, selling that fascinating smile to win ratings for Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hain on Sony TV, the floodgates have literally opened up. To top up the year slipping by, becoming a clear trend on television.
Hema and Amrita
And, if Madhuri can be called trying to reproduce Amitabh Bachchan's numeric trip to sensation in his sunset through Kaun Banega Crorepati on Star Plus, then Karisma Kapoor trailed Madhuri to land up on Sahara Manoranjan with Karishma - A Miracle of Destiny. Bringing along once scorching but now forgotten actress Sheeba for a rebirth. But that was in 2003.
In 2004, the next big name to happen to tele-serials was Sridevi with Hamari Bahu Malini Iyer early this year. Then followed Raveena Tandon with Sahib Bibi Gulam and only last week entered Hema Malini with Kamini Damini. All on Sahara Manoranjan now anglicised as Sahara One. And, come January, Amrita Singh too would join the gang. The vehicle being Ekta Kapoor's Kavvyanjali on Star Plus.
Well, almost a domino effect here. In their entries and exits too. Opening on the same Friday as her big banner film Devdas got released in 2003, Madhuri, though collected accolades only for the big screen role than winning TRPs for Sony TV, thus getting into subsequent motherhood casting off her matrimonial show.
No gainer
Joining her in 2003 with a band of well-established names in filmdom, Karisma too fizzled out, by and by, in spreading her charisma and ejected from the tele-soap in 2004. Meanwhile, slipped in Poonam Dhillon on Zee TV's Kitty Party and out of it this year.
Raveena's appearances too came "to a logical end" with Amitava Bhattacharya-directed Bimal Mitra's Sahib Bibi Gulam going off air only after a few months this year. Sridevi, though, is dragging on as a weekly from being a daily in Malini Iyer. After spending a huge sum of money, the channel in the first six months, could gather only a piffling Rs.150 million. The hope obviously was pinned on these serials with heavyweights to act as magnets but clearly so, it has failed to deliver.
The only star now left to shine and glow is Hema Malini in a double role in Ravi Chopra's Kamini Damini. Says an excited Hema, "It has been quite some time that I did double roles. The last was Seeta Aur Geeta." But what the channel is hoping for is to ride on the success of her box-office hit Baghban, which literally gave back this Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament her fame. Produced by Ravi Chopra, the film is parallel in its basic storyline to Kamini Damini.
Comments Deepak Segal, Vice President, Content, of Star Plus, "The star effect as we have seen by many examples now, do not work. It can work only when the story is strong enough to attract viewers." Taking off air both Karishma... and Sahib Bibi... ., then Vice President, Programming, of Sahara Manoranjan, Tripti Sharma had told the media, "I completely agree that just star power can't work. The other factors are important too." Though the channels do lot of window dressing by projecting them as something really big to hit the screens, with loads of money spent on promotions, foreign locales, five star looks etc to win over ratings, what ultimately can be looked through by the viewers is, none of these actresses have come to TV in their prime. Madhuri's last film anyway was Devdas and while on her career exit, she touched down on TV. Karisma too had plans then to get into marriage and motherhood. All she needed was a little space to keep in circulation. Same with Raveena.
Sridevi, by the time she joined the tube, is no more the Chaalbaaz girl. Amrita and Poonam too had wound up their film careers long back and TV now looks to them like a good way to float back.
The only reprieve is Hema Malini, who is hitting the small screens at a time when her demand is soaring again. In fact, almost two decades back, when she came on Doordarshan in Noopur, long before the TRP wars took centre stage, the Dream Girl managed to hook up a decent number of viewers.
But beginning with Madhuri, all of them - Sridevi, Karishma, Poonam, Raveena and now Hema, termed their entry in to the small screen typically as "challenging." All seemed to have "enjoyed" doing their TV shoots.
But the worry is, none so far has promised to take the viewers along.
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