Veteran Sucheta Trivedi laments over the current scenario in Indian television

Veteran TV actress Sucheta Trivedi is an unhappy woman today for her Star Plus show Ek Doosre Se Karte Hai Pyaar Hum is due to end on 17 of this month (October 2012). “What is really annoying is the fact that they are taking of our Hats Off Productions- show when it was still rating well ( 2.7 TRP when rating was suspended). I had waited for two years after Baa Bahoo Aur Baby till Aatish Kapadia had time to write this story,” she bemoans. The actress is further upset with the fact that the channel has changed the time slot of the show from 7.30 pm to 6 pm with effect from 5 November. “They did not want to spend extra money on promoting the change as the show is in its last leg. They are only running tickers on the channel. This has hurt us for we are putting in so much effort to give the show a nice ending and our viewers might end up missing the final track,” she avers. Sucheta, who has been around the TV scene (Campus, Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka) for many years, laments over the current content scenario on the small screen space.“Over the years, I have worked with great makers like Ravi Rai (Sailaab, Imtihaan et)but in those times creativity was not subject to the TRP pressure. Look don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in the Satyajit Ray kind of cinema, I rather prefer concepts like Dabangg for they have masala, ” Sucheta maintains. However… all is not lost and she is hopeful that things will change once pan India digitization sets in. “ With more set top boxes being seeded in the metros, the educated segment of India which, till now, was not watching Indian TV, might finally get to check out something they can relate to. Till now we only have regressive content which uneducated people in rural areas and aunties in urban areas liked. Tell me which woman of today’s times would accept her wavering husband back? And it is not that the same rural audience has not accepted a powerful woman (polio stricken baby in Baa Bahoo). You need to have faith in your concept and give it some days to click,” she observes. Finally, we ask Sucheta the reason she is not turning producer and walk her above talk, she remarks, “Sorry, I leave that to Jamnadas Majethia (JD) and Aatish for I don’t think I will be able to make changes to the script making the Gujarati film actress suddenly look good and the sister-in-law bad, just to placate the numbers.”