Need for a unified show

Almost every State, barring a few, has constituted awards for films given by the concerned governments across the country apart from the most prestigious one —National Film Awards, in recognition for the best works under various categories. Ever wondered, why the Indian television industry, which is as powerful as the film industry (with the highest reach on a daily basis) seems to have been neglected when it comes to recognitions such as government awards?. Well, apart from the Kerala State government, which awards the best on Malayalam TV, the rest of the states have private TV networks celebrating and recognising small screen achievements. Though a few private companies organise telly awards with jury members deciding on the awards, they are mostly dedicated to Hindi entertainment. With the ongoing annual awards season on Kannada TV, Bengaluru Chronicle reports on the small screen awards scenario and more.

“Movies are mostly made with commercial intent and very few are purely non-commercial ventures. This holds good for small screen too, where the private channels produce programmes, generating revenues based on the television rating points. When such is the case, movies alone getting recognised by the governments with awards and other recognition is unfair. Apart from entertainment, the present small screen ventures are on par with any big screen projects which are innovative and provide a daily dose of entertainment. States like Kerala, have recognised the importance of the small screen and  our state needs to chalk out a policy to recognise their contributions too,” feels Srinivas, a teleserial maker.

Whereas, the new trend amongst private television channels recognising talent, has more or less become an in-house affair.. “ Earlier, when there were only a handful of Kannada TV channels, there were efforts to bring all of then under a platform and award the best serials/programmes on Kannada television.
With more number of channels run by the biggest networks and scores of programmes and shows, everyone has come up with their own version to identify and recognising the best talent. Colors Kannada and Colors Super organises annual events called Anubandha Awards, and Star Suvarna as Parivar Awards and Zee Kannada under ‘Zee Kutumbha Awards.

“The main intention behind organising ‘Zee Kutumbha awards’ is to identify and honour the best, who have been working relentlessly with innovative shows to entertain Kannada audience,” says Raghavendra Hunsur, Zee Kannada business head. Like any movie awards, even the channels have streamlined the selection through special jury members and audience polls. Meanwhile, Zee Kutumbha awards is being aired this weekend.

Whereas, Santosh, a technician feels that these private award events organised by concerned channels have become another platform to garner TRPs. “They will usually invite special guests from the film industry and organise it in a grand fashion, to be telecasted on special occasions. Not surprisingly, almost every programme and shows get one or the other awards,” he signs off, expressing that it is high time governments should step in and recognise the small
screen works in an impartial manner.