IN SEARCH OF TALENT

Continued from issue 42…

Shimul Yousuf

The search for new talents on various TV channels and institutions deserve praise. Although, it is also true that many private TV channels lost its way from the very start in its search for talent. Not only TV channels, newspapers and magazines are searching for new talent as well. Out of all those searches, only readers can tell how many talents we managed to find. Organized by Impress Telefilms, two talent hunt programmes were held. Hosted by Shimul Yousuf, the first one was shown on Bangladesh television. After much hard work, and after auditioning many artistes throughout Bangladesh, she managed to present a very few on-screen. Unfortunately, the talents discovered on that show didn't grow up to be stars. The same goes for the other programme organized by Impress Telefilms. Hosted by Sabina Yasmin and Sumon Chottopadhay, the programme was on-air on ATN Bangla. Many artistes from throughout Bangladesh participated on the programme. But the aftermath turned out to be same as the first programme.
Failures are mentioned because the talent-search shows on Bangladesh television, especially Notun Kuri discovered many artistes, who later became stars of the Bangladesh media. Among them, notable stars are: Tarana Halim, Rumana Rashid Ishita and Tarin. Not only Notun Kuri, many other competition-based programmes telecasted on Bangladesh discovered many hard-working and talented people.
TV audience in Bangladesh can now watch over 100 channels. There is even a Tamil channel beside English, Hindi, Chinese and Arabic ones. The Tamil channel is called, “Sun TV”. This channel is even more popular than Zee TV. Even more surprising is that there are more than 20 TV channels in Bengali. Other than English and Chinese, probably the highest number of channels is in Bengali. Although the audience says for the sake saying that they like to watch BBC, CNN or NAT GEO, in truth, Hindi and Bangla channels are the most popular. Hindi channels, for obvious reasons, are extremely popular in South Asia and the Middle-East. In the subcontinent, channels of other languages are being dominated by Hindi channels. Hindi movies have a huge market and Hindi channels are heading in the same direction. Some Hindi programmes are being shown with English subtitles. Most say that the reason for the popularity of Hindi Channels is their variety. Specially, the daily soaps are immensely popular.
The first Hindi channel that attracted the audience was Zee TV. A fruit-seller in Mumbai is the owner of the channel. Today, Zee is not only a channel but also an empire. Its popularity is all over the world. At first, it was said that the name “Zee” came from “Namaste Zee”. But now the officials are telling a different story behind naming of the channel. The kinds of programmes Hindi channels now have on air had already been done at Zee TV. Star Network is also popular along with Hindi Channels. It is said that from 8:00pm to 12:00pm, housewives stay busy watching daily soaps.   
 

To be continued…
The writer is Managing Director, Channel i
Translated by Zia Nazmul Islam