'You see tourists stroll off hand in hand with children - and you wonder - am I being paranoid or is there more going on here than meets the eye? Unfortunately, there is. Paedophilia has taken root in Goa. It just made me angry and I realised I had to do something about it," that's Venita Coelho for you. A fervent womanist, who joined Sophia Polytechnic to get an idea of media as a young girl.
She started her career with television software house UTV and has a long career history in the Hindi film and television industry as a writer and director. She has written over 12 film scripts - for directors like Santosh Sivan, has lectured on writing for several years at the Social Communications Department of Sophia College in Mumbai.
In television, she has over 800 hours of programming to her credit as a writer - work that was done for Indian, Malaysian and Singapore television.
After being a Mumbai person for several years, she moved to Goa three years ago, in search of an alternative lifestyle, and lived in an old Portuguese house along with four dogs. Interestingly, what got her back to the daily rigour of programming is Sony's latest turn around soap Jassi.
In this interview with indiantelevision.com's Trupti Ghag, she spoke about her career, her decisions and her new role as Sony Entertainment Television's vice president- new product development.
Excerpts:
The media industry is known to take its toll on professionals , so the question isn't really why you left television some years ago but what got you back? |
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And why is it that you decided to take a hiatus from television? Now that I am back and I am in a position where I can influence, I am here for some time. |
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What is going to be your action plan? |
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Have you actually managed to catch some television? What is your opinion about the current fare on the tube? |
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Since you are back from a stint with films, what is the essential difference you find between films and television? Plus, television is so deadline driven! That's not a bad thing necessarily, but it wears people out very fast. So the fatigue factor is high. |
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What is your core team like? Are there any new additions to the team? |
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What is it that you will be working on? |
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You don't seem to be too convinced doing the soaps. |
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What about experimenting with new genres? What we need to build up is strong emotional sagas. We are definitely looking at that in the near future. I would personally want to build up the telefilm genre, but unfortunately the market isn't as conducive. We need to look at the business aspect as well. |
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Do television shows work according to a rule book? Is there an evident need for a Censor Board? I don't particularly think that there is a need for a separate censor board for television, but what I think should be eradicated is display of superstition. But again, I think it is a personal choice, as directors like B P Singh won't indulge in propagating superstitions. |
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If you were to describe Sony as a channel, how would you? |
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What are you doing to ensure creativity? It is a static talent pool in the industry, until and unless there are new and innovative ideas discussed and interaction encouraged. Right now, we are just getting the same ideas over and over again. You need to have a strong theoretical base to work upon, otherwise you get stuck in the routine fare. |
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Do you feel there is a bias towards women professionals in the entertainment medium? The same cannot be said about films, though. It is a little difficult for a woman to break though the patriarchal hierarchy. Plus, the workers too are male and not used to taking orders from 'womenfolk', so that can be a major problem. |
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What has been your personal experience? I have a great support system right now. I have left my parents in charge of my place and my dogs. I go to Goa every weekend. |
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Television is considered a woman's medium. As a woman, how would you rate the portrayal of women on the small screen? |
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What really helped 'Jassi' was the marketing spin, don't you agree? |
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What is your opinion about the competition, both Star Plus and Zee? Zee has a lot of sleeping loyalty, which I think it has to take count of. |
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What happens to your production company FireHorse now? We have a couple of films in the pipeline, and are awaiting funds. We should start working on them in some months' time. |
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