I still remember the morning of 26th January 1982. It was a cold pleasant morning and the best part was that it was a school holiday on account of the Republic day of India. On any other day I would have slept till late in the morning (I was just 7 yr. old then). However, that day I was up early and all set along with my siblings to watch a grand event on the television – The Republic day parade.
I am sure a lot of you who have been born and brought up in India would recall how big this event used to be for every Indian household. The morning was spent with the family glued to the black and white TV sets watching the fabulous tableaus of all the Indian states one by one, listening to the stories of the acts of bravery committed by some small children who were being rewarded and the stories of the brave personnel from the security forces who were ensuring that we all lived in peace. And post the event the discussions of the event would continue for the next few days at least.
However, over a period of time as media and entertainment evolved in India, the interest levels of people in this spectacular seem to be diminishing. Today for some strange reason I decided to watch the event in the morning and my instant reaction was “What an event!!!”
Such a grand event, so colorful…. where else do you get to see all the colors of India coming together in one place? But then why are people losing interest in this? why is no one bothered? Why does this event not attract enough eye balls on television?
This is by far the biggest and the oldest National event of India but it still doesn’t generate the same amount of interest as some of the other events do. It is unfortunately not the most awaited event on television. By this I don’t mean that people in this are no more patriotic and don’t have respect for the Nation. They are probably as patriotic if not more as what people were 60 years back. I think somewhere media has to play an important role here.
Over the last few decades the face of media has changed, entertainment industry has evolved. Everything right from movie making to news presentation has undergone a sea change. Hence may be the event doesn’t seem to be of any relevance to today’s generation mainly because of the way its presented.
And it’s all about creating hype. I am not saying that 26th January does not generate any hype but I am talking more from the perspective of the morning event that happens in New Delhi. Why can’t TV channels create hype around the event? All they talk about is the security arrangements that are being made for the day. Why can’t they highlight the things that viewer can expect from this? The event is so full of information. Why can’t we build interactivity along the event? Why can’t the event be viewed on media that is more relevant to today’s generation? Why not mobisodes?
These are some of the questions that come to my mind when I think how I could have made this event more popular. I am sure if a channel really wants to promote this we can come up with many more innovative ideas. The recently concluded common wealth games opening and closing ceremonies did attract a lot of audiences. If you ask me the Republic day event is much bigger than that. The only difference was that the CWG was promoted by all news channels while the Republic day event does not get any importance. If we can generate buzz around the live bidding of IPL players I am sure a lot can be done for our National event also.
My intention is not to commercialize the event. But it is important to make it relevant to today’s generation so that they remain involved and make it bigger and better in the years to come. Otherwise we may soon land up in a situation where TV channels might not want to telecast the event at all for lack of viewership.
