TV is all movie-based

Naik insists, meanwhile, that slowly non-film software is being created, which will reduce the film-based content on television channels considerably. "Hindi film content would have only a 35 per cent impact on viewership, because finally, original programming is getting exceedingly popular." Also, he says, what fetches revenue for channels are recent movies like Satya and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, not so much the black-and-white films.

On Zee, the film-based programmes amount to precisely 41 hours and 20 minutes per week, while song-based shows take up three and a half hours each week. Interestingly, Zee was the first channel which made original programming popular by leading the pack with such serials as Tara, which kept audiences as entertained as film-based shows did. Also, about one-third of the week’s time is sourced from Hindi movies, and the channel remains popular by including if not film based programmes, then film personalities as hosts of shows.

Sony, on the other hand, agrees that a lot of popularity comes from film-based programming, but insists that it depends largely on the kind of movies they run. A spokesperson for the channel explains that on the new MAX channel, 285 days out of 365 are allotted for movies which will be aired 24 hours a day. On the main Sony channel, there 51 hours of movies per week currently, though this is scheduled to be cut down. "Of course the popularity of MAX does come from the fact that we have acquired rights of such big films like Shool and Vaastav. But I’d still say that Sony does not focus on film-based programming alone," the spokesperson elaborates. While admitting that the popularity of such shows as Movers & Shakers is increased when Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla make an appearance, our source adds that "non-movie based shows like Heena, Kanyadaan, Saaya, Missing and CID are also hugely popular."

Of course, to Sony also goes the credit of acquiring the television rights of almost every prestigious film and celebrity-based show, including the Lata Mangeshkar concert, or the Mukti Foundation show for Aids, the Filmfare Awards and even the Miss India show. Clearly, despite the digital and dotcom era, Bollywood reigns. Soppy film potboilers hail supreme yet…

— Lata Khubchandani