Small screen, big view, bigger stakes

"Arre, yeh to Kanyadan wala baap hai. Haan, haan he was Kiron Kher’s husband in the serial. Yaad nahin aaya, abhi Lipstick mein aata hai." "Why are you doing this to Kumkum. Aap kyon uski dushman banne ho? She’s such a sweet person... just what is your problem?" "Autograph please, I am sorry, I don’t know your name but aap Koshish-Ek Asha mein Sudhir the na?"
Before you switch channels and shout Omigosh, let’s inform you that these aren’t merely sound bites (of excited fans when they see their favorite television actors in flesh) rather are actually reality bites!
As the entertainment scene gets hotter and hotter and the number game (read TRPs) is taking the country by storm, our own city is also riding high on the Entertainment equation.
With so many telly stars making an appearance in the city either to shoot or promote their oeuvres, one thing is certain that idiot box is no longer just idiot rather a world beyond this world!
Says TV actor Shishir Sharma (Kanyadan, Lipstick) who was in town to shoot the pilot of his serial Kho Gayi Manzilein... Kho Gayi, "If you don’t have the numbers, you don’t have the programme. You have to understand that TV is functioning on so many constraints of time and money still there are people who want to give something fresh and creative."
For actress Shweta Tiwari (Prerna, Kasauti Zingadii Kay) who was in town a couple of months back, TV is as big if not bigger than films, "I won’t do item numbers in films just for the heck of it. Performance matters to me otherwise it will be the same case as Sonali Bendre and Mamta Kulkarni. Even if I consider doing a film, it will be only films like Mother India and Mrityudand. TV gives me more scope to act."
Exactly what cine star Karisma Kapoor thinks when we come to know of her slated debut on Sahara TV’s Karishma - the miracles of destiny. And while we are there didn’t the Superstar of the Millennium Amitabh Bachchan’s crorepati debut on the small screen also made his stocks high at the filmy box office and what about Madhuri Dixit’s show on TV which might’ve bombed but did wonder’s for the dhak dhak girl’s ever so growing popularity.
With so much money at stake and so many careers on line, TV is the big thing.
Ironically, though it’s the characters which remain in mind not the names of the actors, a point echoed by Alka Kaushal who plays the vampish Sukanya bua in Kumkum, "It’s really ironic. Everybody knows us by face and character but don’t know our real names. Guess that’s why serials on TV do so well because audience see the characters and not merely the stars." TV ka kamal.
harneet_singh@indiatimes.com