How did this generalisation come to be? TV people are stupid? They are limited? They are stuck in a time warp?

TV professionals who have been around know and understand production, budgets and timelines. Who doesn’t need efficient production, optimal budget utilisation and an inherent respect for timelines?

Where then lies the concern?

Creatives.

In India, soaps have been the mainstay of television. No other fiction format has survived this two decade culture of habitual viewing. Soap writers are prone to a simple, linear grammar and while they are adept at changing tracks halfway and are given to creating the most fantastical situations and reactions from characters … pacing, layering, character depth and motivation don’t come as naturally. There are always exceptions to the rule but here we speak of perceptions formed over time.

Perception boundaries restrict experimentation and new ideas but also prevent the industry from evolving. Unfortunately, these are realities of the business.

To my mind, the most natural teams and fits would be young and upcoming or seasoned film writers, DOPs, directors and editors hired by television production companies when venturing into new content formats. The production companies can do the line production enabling them to gradually build out a renewed creative ecosystem. The production companies should also set up workshops for the current crop of tv writers and technicians to unlearn and move forward with more new age and contemporary writing experiments. That will help propel the industry towards the future.

It is when we resist and insist that we know best that we become redundant.