Television today is more popular than films. It has done a number of experiments and now the film industry heavily relies on small screen.

The celluloid content in Bollywood still revolves around three main characters, ie hero, heroin and villain, but the television entertainment content has expanded its horizon. The panaroma of TV serials have a number of stories, from mythological to science fiction, from special effects to simple stories. Though Bollywood is older, yet TV has done more literary work than the former. With the passage of time, television has produced a great number of TV stars. In the process of experiment, TV has also been criticised for its mediocre products.

Meanwhile, Bollywood has a plethora of reasons for its decline. The industry is dogged by family promotion and capitalist’s money minting mantras. Stardom in the industry has affected the contents. Film makers choose and manipulate stories to promote stars and opt for cheap avenues for business.

Despite giving many wonderful stars, Bollywood still has been unable to produce a single Tarkovsky, Akira Kurosawa or Orson Welles. In the name of classics, we still cherish the works of Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt or Ritwik Ghatak. Other counterparts of Bollywood has continued to produce masters.

Iran, despite a number restrictions has made its mark in the global arena of cinema. Majid Majidi is a name, widely acknowledged for his content and remarkable treatment of his films. He does not need three stereotyped characters to make a film. He relies on small, heart touching stories with which the audience can easily relate to.

Even in comedies, our film industry still resorts to cartoon shows. Recent flicks like Golmal and Golmal Returns were hilarious for its comic characters and funny situations. Why can’t we make satirical comedies? What stops us to make a Pedro Almodovar, the master of dark comedy?

Television in India has kept its pace smoothly running. Initially, the serials of yore like, ’Bunyad’, ’Humlog’ were galored, but the small screen has not stopped producing quality products. ’Movers & Shakers’, ’The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’ has successfully carved a niche for itself in the television industry. Despite the sagas of saas bahu, television has given us amazing ’reality shows’ too. This has not only brought the latent talent to the fore but also opened up avenues for a number of technicians. Television has also paved way for many failed actors of celluloid.

Today, television has made the film industry depended on it. That is the reason why we see so many film actors making their presence in TV shows to promote their films. It’s no longer an anathema for the film actors to work on small screen. Bollywood needs an introspection and revamp in its functioning.