The multi
lingual identity of India is a well-known characteristic of the country. There
are a number of languages in India which have millions of speakers. The most
interesting thing is that almost all of these languages have their own
developed tradition of local entertainment. When it comes to nationally popular
entertainment, it is Hindi which dominates not only cinema but also the small
screen. This is actually because majority of the people in India understand
Hindi and are used to speaking in Hindi in a multi-cultural setting. It is not very
surprising to learn that Hindi is considered to be the general genre of
entertainment in India. As a result, almost all the major entertainment
companies in India invest a considerable amount of their focus on Hindi general
entertainment channels. This trend, thought very useful in improving the
quality of Hindi general entertainment channels, seems to have resulted in the
negligence of a large section of the population who are not fluent in Hindi. The
penetration of Hindi based national general entertainment has remained confined
to the states belonging to the Hindi belt and the urban regions of the
non-Hindi speaking states of the country. The population that is residing in
the rural areas of the non-Hindi speaking states, despite forming a huge
market, has remained untouched.
However, it
would be wrong to say that no efforts have been made to introduce channels in
regional languages. In fact, a number of media companies have been running
general entertainment channels in regional languages. Nevertheless, it cannot
be denied that the quality of the programmes aired on the regional language
channels seldom match up to the quality of the programmes aired on the Hindi
general entertainment channels. One thing which needs to be understood here is
that the difference in quality of the Hindi general entertainment channels and
the regional general entertainment channels does not lie in the quality of the
programmes, but in the domain of technical expertise which is directly
dependent on the budget. There are media companies such as Viacom 18 which have
been trying to invest in the technical aspects of the general entertainment
channels.
Viacom
18 has also tried to venture into a few languages in which the general
entertainment genre was limited to the government sponsored channels. Its channels
in those languages did not take much time to become the market leader. In fact,
in a few states, the regional entertainment channel managed to become more
popular than the Hindi general entertainment channels. One such channel is Colors Odia. Gujarati
is the primary language spoken in the state of Odisha, yet there had been a
serious absence of general entertainment programmes in the language. Colors Odia has bridged this gap with
it’s their drama soaps, situational comedies, reality shows, which are all in
the language of Odia.
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