SOAP OPERA

Remember 2009. The Renaissance year for Indian Television

Over the last decade cable and satellite television, spurred by competition, has been at the head of an entertainment revolution. But 2009, was special -- a year that would be remembered, in my view, for many reasons. The least of which is the hostile environment in which we worked. In the year gone, the industry has survived the ghost of recession, the cautiousness of advertisers and the jostling of a crowded market place.

If 2009 must be marked off in history, it must surely be for what emerged out of these tough circumstances. The spurt of innovation and localisation, the emergence of television that catalyses social debate, the coming to age of reality television and last but not the least, the arrival of technology in our living rooms. 2009 was the year television suddenly grew up in India. And viewers suddenly matured too. It was the renaissance year.

Here are the five things of 2009 that will always make it a year, bookmarked in my diary:

The unrelenting surge in Content Innovation and the courage to experiment with new ideas
If any one needed proof that television had grown up, it came from Rakhi Sawant. A personality created by reality television was going to do the unthinkable. Get married… on TV… in a show. ‘Rakhi ka Swayamvar’ makes an emphatic point for both reality television and content innovation. It also stands as the flag bearer for home-grown Ideas. And this year there were lots – ‘Chote Miyan’ for e.g opened up a completely new genre on TV. But 2009 also belonged to international formats, bravely customised for India. ‘Fear Factor’, continued its rein as the desi Khatron ka Khiladi, ‘Bigg Boss’ brought the Big B back on TV. And ‘Sach ka Samna’ proved the culture neutrality of great concepts. Just for the record, over a 100 show launches came from just eight players in Hindi general entertainment. And an incredible 390 shows with reality content in 2009 alone (94 on Hindi channels and 296 on regional channels) makes me believe that the innovation labs are working overtime.

Entertainment with substance
If the last decade truly belonged to television, due credit must go to the daily soaps. Millions of Indians have given up a significant part of their life to their undying loyalty to primetime stories and characters. Unfortunately, towards the end of the decade, critics found reason to complain of its sameness and lack of substance. But just as the viewer began to feel the monotony, television reinvented its favourite child -- fiction. And once more 2009 could be signed off as a watershed year. Television is suddenly replete with stories that have soul; stories that mirror cultural truth and spur debate. And social messages embodied in great entertainment.

It’s no secret that all around us Bharat and India are learning to coexist. The result is the country is in a perpetual state of debate. News channels are abound with continuous conflict of values, almost to the point of social entertainment sometimes. And storytelling has been the harbinger of many such debates as well. Issues like child marriage, female infanticide, dowry and social inequality, have finally fallen out of the closet and into our living rooms. A movement that started in 2008 but found its true calling in 2009. Television, take a bow.

Regionalisation was the flavour of 2009
The South of the country has long proven the power of regional entertainment. And over the last decade Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi and Bengali television has found a new market in regional content. But 2009 saw a new spurt in regional content on two fronts -- first the launch of Star Majha and Star Pravah that spurred the competition afresh. And then Hindi Entertainment found regional inspiration. Shows inspired by local customs, regional dialects and undiscovered cultural hues have infused fresh breath into storytelling. 2009 belonged to shows that stepped out of studios and predictable set and into the rich terrain of India, and its many regions.

Technology moved into our Living Room…
With Bollywood superstars, having joined force with the DTH war, the battle lines are set. And once more 2009 has been a year of significant events. New players, increased marketing spends, entry level price wars, freebies and technology that left the uninitiated viewer wide-eyed and softened. In fact, if there are two industries that refused to slowdown in the slowdown, it was DTH and high-end TV’s. This is the beginning of something big. Changes in the way we distribute and in the way we access TV. Digitisation will yield choice. It will give the viewer a ‘real’ option to buy what she wants to watch. It will make niche content viable and mass content work harder.

Big Screen, Small Screen. Bigger Screen.
For long now, television has lived in the shadows of Bollywood, silently invading our lives. And then in the last decade the two found a bridge with celebrity anchors and star studded shows. But 2009 was different. Suddenly Bollywood seemed to have recognised television as its natural ally. No movie marketing plan was complete without a show. Every big star found time to entertain home audiences to build his or her equity and sell their movies. 2009 will most definitely count as the year, when TV finally found acknowledgement from its older ally. Homecoming is the word, I think.

So, 2009 -- Renaissance year. Difficult to say how much of it was environment, how much was competition and how much a new breath of inspiration. But the year deserves an epitaph.

Tough year… Big year… Exciting year… End of a decade - beginning of an Era. And for Colors, the beginning of even greater success…

(Rajesh Kamat is the CEO of Colors.)