Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; November 9, 2019)

Content is the ‘it’ word these days. Everyone from the world of showbiz is now stressing on the need of good material. But Indian television is a different ball game altogether with people criticising supernatural shows while they continue to garner big TRPs. Ask actor Saumya Tandon, who stars in a comedy show currently, about her take on TV being called backward, and she says, “Unfortunately, TV is very regressive. There are very few shows which are good. TV is catering now more to the rural areas and small towns with the younger audiences moving towards the web.”

However, the actor agrees that television remains the medium with the largest reach, much more than films and web. “The urban crowd has moved away from TV and there is very little to watch that’s appealing. They have better content available through films, international and digital platforms. In future, if TV doesn’t go through a revolution, it will end up catering to rural audiences only.”

Saumya, who’s been in showbiz for more than a decade now, says that industry insiders can see the change in viewership.“There is probably going to be a shakeout and money invested on TV will reduce. With internet getting cheap and available in rural areas, it will slowly become challenging for TV to sustain the numbers it has right now. The numbers, in fact, have been dwindling. It is going through a difficult phase. Very few shows have held water and are actually successful. Usually, shows come and go fast, and TRPs are dropping consistently,” says the actor.