Small is the new big!

doweshowbellyad=0; Urmila Matondkar (TOI Photo) More picsDuring the hoary days of state-controlled television one rarely saw filmstars on the idiot-box.
Not only did they shy away from appearing on the 35 mm, its restricted scope ensured that they couldn���t even if they wanted to.
But not long after satellite television���s advent in India, the country���s greatest superstar suddenly blinked at you from your set���s screen and asked a question.Amitabh Bachchan���s quizmaster avatar on Kaun Banega Crorepati not only lifted his sagging career, but was also the most remarkable appearance ever by a cinestar on television. Now filmstars are all over on TV.
Akshay Kumar is doing Fear Factor���s desi version reportedly for Rs 1.5 crore per episode. Rumours of Aamir Khan being offered Rs 1 crore per episode for a show is TV world���s latest big news, even as Salman Khan���s promos for the show he���s hosting are being telecast. Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt and even semi-retired actresses like Sonali Bendre and Raveena Tandon are signing deals for new shows.
���Television has truly come of age in India. More than cinema, it can connect a Bollywood star with the audience,��� says producer Niret Alva. Agrees Siddhartha Mukherjea from TAM (India). ���A Bollywood star is one of the many brands in a cluttered market. So, he or she obeys the simple marketing rule of keeping his/her visibility score high by sustained appearances on mass media, one of which is television.��� But it is not just the star who profits through television appearances. Says Mukherjea, ���When a celebrity appears on a show, the viewers spend more time on the channel in addition to watching the programme out of sheer curiosity. Hence, audience loyalty and reach increases.���
But why film stars? Aren���t television stars saleable enough? ���I don���t see anything wrong in film stars appearing on television given that television and cinema are related media and share many aspects,��� says Siddhartha Basu, whose production house produced KBC and is now doing Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hai with SRK.
Another argument is that film stars are more popular than their television counterparts. ���Bollywood actors��� lifestyle, imagery and impact, is always more,��� says Mukherjea. Even telly stars accept this. ���I can���t be compared to an Amitabh Bachchan or a Shah Rukh Khan. They are in a league of their own,��� says small screen superstar Ronit Bose Roy. However, the above explanation is not a given. ���Yes, Bollywood stars have charisma and their entry makes a show bigger. But all of them have not been hits on television. Look at Anupam Kher, Govinda, Manoj Bajpai and Madhuri Dixit, whose appearances were capers.
Conversely, Jaaved Jafferi, Aman Verma and Mandira Bedi have made it big on television sans any star value,��� feels Kalyan Sundaram, programming head of a premier channel. Television sadly hasn���t created too many after first generation stars apart from Shekhar Suman, Smriti Iraani, Ronit Bose Roy and Sakshi Tanwar, who can carry a show on their shoulders. This is where Bollywood glamour works. Also the general entertainment genre has declined from 21.3 per cent in 2004 to 20.2 per cent in 2007 of the total share, having a saleable name of a film star sure helps. Besides that, interaction between the two media is expected to only increase. ���This trend of cross utilisation has only just begun,��� says Mukherjea. Or
shall we say, ���the party has just begun���.