Can't crack Bollywood? Try TV news.

There are a number of institutes feeding the growing media industry's talent requirements. Our subconscious mind eavesdropped on an enlightening conversation a few months ago, on a certain television news channel hiring anchors from a modelling institute.

It was simply too outlandish a thought to believe. Or so we thought, until an interviewer entrusted with the job of screening candidates aspiring to do a Mass Communication course met this astute young lady, and let us in on his learning from the encounter. Let's call her Ms Namaste.

Ms Namaste moved to Mumbai from Uttar Pradesh, like many others before her, and after her, with dreams of making it big in Bollywood. She rues the fact that she had to wait until she turned 18 to do so.

After a course at Anupam Kher's ‘Actor Prepares' school, dance training, small roles in television serials, being part of ensembles entertaining audiences live, and innumerable meetings with potential, bogus and other kinds of filmmakers, she has given up on Bollywood.

So what next for the lady, who walked into the interview hall with a bowed head and hands respectfully upheld in a namaste ?

“I don't have a godfather in the industry, and have spent over two years now trying to get a good break in films. I have been reasonably successful with films and TV, enough to support myself in this city and can also afford to invest in a formal degree, but I don't see acting taking off as a career. I don't want to keep doing small roles for money,” said Ms. Namaste during her interview, in what the interviewer assumed was chaste Hindi.

A logical transition?

The logical transition, according to her, would be in some avenue of the media that she could leverage her skills in. Fair enough. Her self-SWOT analysis reveals that verbal (Hindi) and visual communication are her strong points. So, she is now committed to relentless focus on Hindi television, of the news genre.

“There are lot of similarities between TV news and films. Screen presence and spoken language are very important. Also, you have to tell the story and your point of view convincingly. You have to dramatise things to keep viewers interested,” she said, before her exit namaste .

The interviewer couldn't make up his mind on her admission.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW