What's in a name? Lots if it's for a well-deserved actor

In times when actors on the big screen are fighting for top billing it’s indeed strange that their small screen counterparts are not given any credit leave alone top billing. Considering the fact that many actors are doing a good job on TV, they definitely need to be credited for that. If I ask you to name the actor who played the role of Raghav in Na Aana Iss Des Laado how many of you would be able to answer that one? Well, Aditya Redij is the answer or how many of you know who plays Manav in Pavitra Rishta? It’s Sushant Singh Rajput. What about the man who plays Basant in Balika Vadhu? Well, it’s the hugely talented actor from NSD, Satyajit Sharma. These are just a few actors seen on prime-time shows. But there are countless others doing equally good work on relatively unknown shows on less popular channels. So why is it they are not getting the credit they so rightly deserve? After speaking to reputed producers and some key channel people it is understood that names of actors are left out of the credits as the channels cannot afford a long run time (run time is the time when credits roll on screen). A producer informs that though he would like to credit each and everyone who works on the show he is unable to do so as it is solely a channel’s prerogative. In fact he adds that not only does a channel order the number of names that should be used but also decides on the font (the way the letters should be styled). In fact the channel does the entire packaging. If we go back a little in time we will notice that earlier we were used to reading a list of credits at the end of each show and now we see them in the beginning. And now since we seamlessly move on to the next show, the end credits are done away with. Result: the content time is in-built with the text. Yet another veteran producer has another view point. He says in serials an actor is known by the character he plays and hence viewers really don’t care about his real name. Moreover there are many actors who make a serial so it’s almost impossible to credit each and every one of them. Also in case of the popular ones a TV watcher is very intelligent and checks websites to find the actor’s real name says a veteran producer. Moreover he adds that since the actors are not given credit he goes out of his way to promote them. He says he spends a neat packet on PRs to promote the actors. Promotion or no promotion what an actor needs is to be rewarded by giving him recognition by inserting his name when his work is shown. Many actors rue this development and state that since it’s a channel’s call they have no say in this matter. In fact an actor went a step ahead to inform that since the small screen medium attracts new entrants by the minute, they are always insecure and so do not make any unnecessary demands. But at the end of the day which actor does not like his or her name roll out in the credits he stated. Moving on to the core of this issue, it was the turn of the channel to clarify why actors were left out. A source from the channel stated that television shows are an expensive proposition where every minute costs the channel dearly. So some compromises have to be made. In this case it was decided to strike off actors from the credits as serials are all about characters and not about actors. Since it is a Tulsi, Parvati, Ammaji, Manav-Archana, Tappu-Ichcha who make a show there was not enough need felt to add the actors’ name to the credits. And since most of the time viewers cannot even read the names that roll out due to the shortage of time it hardly matters he reasoned. So now when you want to know who plays Tapasya in Uttaran (BTW, it’s Rashmi Desai) or who plays Pratigya in Pratigya (it’s Pooja Gor) or Suhana in Sasural Genda Phool (Yup, it’s Ragini Khanna.) and you are still hungry for more then for the moment there is no recourse but to go to a TV website and check out the names of the actors who star in your fave TV show. As for the actors all one can say is that this may be a heavy price to pay but at the end of the day the amount of love and adulation they get from the scores of people who watch their shows may be just worth it. Read more...