Interesting times are ahead for the Telugu television industry. Artistes and technicians, who for the last couple of months have been agitating against dubbing serials, now got assurances from all entertainment channels on phasing out of dubbed serials.
While ETV has already stopped airing the dubbed serials, others have promised local artistes and technicians about reducing the same in phases. Herein lies the challenge for the telly industry. Is it equipped and ready to fill in the gap that gets created with the phase-out? And how will the viewers receive the new content, particularly the daily soaps?
According to Telugu Television Parishrama Pariraskhana Samiti, which spearheaded the agitation, all the entertainment channels put together had 74 daily serials of which 63 were dubbed ones. Now with these serials being pulled off the air in coming months, where is the content to replace it?
Samiti representatives assure that the void will be filled and the process has already started. Almost 18 serials are ready and approved by different channels apart from another 35 daily serials complete with pilot episodes and ready for submission to seek approvals.
“Shooting for five new serials has started in the last few days including of two that were launched on Friday,” says D. Suresh, convenor of Samiti’s Joint Action Committee (JAC). Main artistes and junior artistes apart, technicians from 24 different crafts, right from make-up to costumes, will now be assured of work, he says.
There is no dearth of talented artistes, script writers or other technicians here but so far, the problem was that of opportunities, Mr. Suresh maintains. “Despite stiff competition from dubbed serials, our people created wonderful and successful serials,” he says.
In terms of technical aspects too, the city does not lag behind and is equipped to meet the challenge of producing good number of serials and shows, it is pointed out.
“The city has more than 120 studios, most with sophisticated paraphernalia and trained technical assistance. We can compete with any other city,” says a studio owner.
It’s time viewers start preparing to bid adieu to dubbed serials one after another and get ready to welcome indigenous content.
