Last week, on an invitation from MNS chief Raj Thackeray, many celebrities from Mumbai had responded, by taking part in a debate on proposed ‘Mumbai Development Plan’ by the state government. It was called a non political debate. Almost all Marathi news channels started showing the Live Telecast of the so called meeting, attended by prominent personalities like Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Bharat Dabholkar, Dilip Vengsarkar, well known architect and town planner P.K.Das and many other artistes from Marathi entertainment industry.
But, after the introductory speech of Raj Thackeray, Mr. P. K. Das was called upon to brief the participants, on how wrong was the proposed plan. But, surprisingly, the so called live telecast, was suddenly stopped by all these channels. Later, when some of the channels showed the reactions of the celebrities, it became clear that they were in agreement with what Mr. P. K. Das had said. But, what P. K. Das said about the plan, was not known to the viewers. But, through the statements made by some celebrities, it became clear that they had opposed the proposed plan, especially the construction of car shed in city’s green belt in Aarey Colony.
In fact, what Mr. P.K.Das’ presented through visual display on screen and what he had suggested, was disclosed by other news websites later; but, the TV news viewers were deprived of this most important speech of Mr. Das. Instead of showing his speech, the news channels gave preference to the news on AAP party politics, which was not so relevant to people in Mumbai and Maharashtra. And, that was a big disappointment for the Marathi TV viewers.
Sometimes, while watching the advertisements of Hindi TV programmes on some Marathi channels, we fail to understand, why such programme ads are shown on Marathi channels? It is a clear indication that the Hindi entertainment channels are trying to invite more and more new Marathi viewers, to see their programmes too ? If it is so, then our Marathi entertainment channels, will have to offer quality entertainment, so as to retain their viewership .
With the new colorful look taken by an existing Marathi channel, our Grand old Doordarshan’s Sahyadri channel is also preparing to make its presence felt. It is understood that Mr. Mukesh Sharma has till date, successfully managed to introduce many new interesting Marathi entertaining programmes. And, they are receiving good response, to some of these programmes which were introduced during the past few months. But, now the news is that something more interesting will be offered by the national channel, for Marathi viewers. So, do switch on to this channel too, for a change.
The first look of this programme, shown in trailer, gives an impression that they have honoured some well known personalities like Bharat Dabholkar, Neena Kulkarni and Ravi Jadhav with much deserved ‘Pravah Ratna’ awards. Even otherwise, Star Pravah is gearing up to face the competition, with the arrival of ETV’s new Colourful look; with the introduction of two new serials ‘Priti Pari Tujavari’ and ‘Tu Jivala Guntavave’. But, that’s not enough. Though their two serials ‘Lakshay’ and ‘Jayostute’ are doing well, they have to think something big, instead of continuing with the outdated subjects.
People in Maharashtra seem to have lost interest in cricket, ever since the retirement of Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar from Cricket. This is at least true in the case of women folks, who take no interest in watching cricket on television now days. Few years ago, there used to be discussions among young and middle aged women, during the World Cup Cricket. But, now we hardly hear anyone gossiping in trains, buses and public places about cricket. Instead, ladies still continue to speak about their favourite serials and TV artistes.
