Actor Rajniesh Duggall was a part of the TV show Sanjog. In November last year, the show suddenly went off air. The actor played the role of Rajeev Kothari in it. The Free Press Journal caught up with him for an exclusive chat. Excerpts:
What are your thoughts on Hindi daily soaps in general?
I feel that 80 per cent of them are female-oriented and 20 per cent are male oriented. But what happens is that even in those women-oriented shows, the man is as important because the minute you say that they are showing the woman is not treated right or is being tortured, at the end of the day, the man is involved. Now, it could be a supportive role or a negative one. So, they become as important as the women.
Could you elaborate further?
It would either be the husband, boyfriend or the brother or the father-in-law. I think it’s as pivotal as the main centre but yes, otherwise 20 per cent are the stories which also eventually turn out to be women-centric. The consumers and consumption audience is women.
According to you, how can TV content be improved?
I personally feel that there’s been a lot of content which is being changed and better content is coming but sometimes, I’m slightly taken aback when a producer pitches a story to a channel and if the channel agrees to it, and still it keeps changing. But they know better because they have the audience’s pulse with them.
Go on…
They keep getting feedback and from that, they keep changing it for the better. It should always be taken in a positive way because at the end of the day, they’re also doing it to make their channel work and show work.
So you think that the creative heads need to stick to the original ideas?
I think the creative heads and the channel people know the best. The writers and the producers are the people who are working day in and day out to make better content. They are doing a great job at it. Also, what I noticed is that the way of shooting is still the same. It is the same old way of directing the show, which should definitely change. One master shot, close up shot, over-the-shoulder shot. There are certain scenes where you don’t really need to shoot six times.
Are you comparing scenes filmed for TV shows to web series?
If you watch a half an hour of an episode which is on the web you will see the difference between the shot taking. That I feel somewhere it needs to change.
