It looks regressive: Anand Gandhi on TV content

Filmmaker Anand Gandhi, who penned popular soaps "Kyunki... Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" and "Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii" for the small screen, is dissatisfied with TV content as he feels it lacks structure and coherence.

"Everything is lacking in TV today. There is no content, no structure, no coherence, no meaning, and no craftsmenship... it looks regressive," Gandhi told IANS in an interview.

Currently in the news for his internationally acclaimed film "Ship Of Theseus", he feels medium has not been exploited fully.

"TV as a medium has not been exploited and understood by anyone in our country. There is a huge audience, which has not been catered to. I don't have a single friend in my life who in the last seven years has seen a single Hindi TV show," he said.

"Ship Of Theseus" will release July 19 in India in five cities and Gandhi said the film was "an enlightening experience" for him.

"It was transformative in the most literal sense. I went through a serious shift of my views on the world. It was interesting," he said."Ship Of Theseus" is a serious film and Gandhi said it was a conscious decision to keep it like that.
"It was a conscious decision to make a film which is not frivolous, to make a film that is entertaining and profound. Hopefully, engaging and inspiring. It is stimulating while being entertaining. It has to be stimulating enough to inspire an active participation from the audience," he said.

Earlier, Gandhi made short films. "My previous film were short films. You could call them parallel to the main stream medium... There is a huge audience in India, which is not being catered to, who like to think," he said.