You can love it or hate it, but you can’t ignore it—this saying stays true to the medium of television. With the advent of OTT, people assumed that TV might slowly die down, but the medium has stood the test of time and still continues to be a primary source of entertainment for a large part of the country. On World Television Day, we speak to some prominent names from the small screen, who discuss what makes the medium still relevant in today’s time.
TV’s regular presence makes you more relevant and familiar to the audience. As an artiste too, no other medium provides this kind of consistent practice. The daily routine of working on TV trains you to adapt and deliver without feeling overwhelmed. If you can excel in television, you can succeed anywhere. TV challenges you in ways that make other mediums feel much easier by comparison. Television is still relevant because it continues to address issues and topics that resonate deeply with Indian families, ranging from saas-bahu conflicts to matters like child marriage and dowry. These are subjects people often hesitate to talk about, yet they’re eager to see them discussed. A show that airs every day has the power to consistently reinforce its message, making it more impactful than a three-hour film or a six-episode web series. This consistent engagement helps drive the point more effectively.
Television provides a sense of continuity and relatability that other mediums sometimes lack. For actors, it offers the opportunity to evolve with their characters over time, allowing for greater exploration of emotions and growth. The medium remains timeless because it’s the heartbeat of family entertainment, in most of the places in India. The beauty of television is its ability to adapt—offering fresh stories, cultural touch, and relatable content while staying rooted in tradition.
Television is the heart of entertainment medium. It’s there where even the internet can’t reach. Television has given me a digital family. It will always stay relevant. Watching a TV show on a television channel is much more cost-effective than a movie or a web show. Web is a bright medium, but its diverse nature and subscription module make it, at times, difficult for people to subscribe to so many different OTT platforms, whereas TV is available everywhere.
TV is a very prestigious medium. When the audience watch a television show they relate to the characters and find the actors to be one of them. Watching the shows every day, is like watching a part of their family everyday. Reaching every household is the ultimate power of Television. Whenever I have met my fans, they have always given me a feeling of being their daughter or mother or someone who’s a part of their family and that they know me.
Kanwar Dhillon
With any other medium, you just watch the content, and then switch it off. But with television, it’s a daily practice. There is a very high recall value of TV shows and its actors. It has a certain connect that no other platform has been able to achieve. The other mediums won’t be able to achieve that too because be it a web show or films, you watch it and move on to the next one. But with television, for the duration of the show, people are connected to you, watching you every day. TV is still relevant, because people are emotionally and habitually connected to it.
Aashiesh Sharrma
TV as a medium has always been open to embrace new talents. It gives a chance to newcomers wholeheartedly without any prejudice or being biased. It has made established actors and stars who come from no background in the industry. So, TV has been the flag bearer of newcomers, and not just in acting. The medium has given me creative and financial stability where I can choose to do what I want and today I have a production house because of it where I am creating my own stuff.
The advantage of television is regular employment and steady payments. There is a more structured pattern of working. It has made my life memorable right from day one, 20 years ago. Television still holds the maximum reach not just in the country but across the world. Otherwise, why would we continue to make so many serials, and adding to the length of the already running shows.
