Reality shows are using children to make money, says Meri Durga producer Ravindra Gautam!

Producer Ravindra Gautam ’s Meri Durga seems to have not only found an ardent fan following in adults but in children too. The show has been recently awarded the best children’s show at the ITA awards. “We got the best children's show award at ITA Awards recently. It has given a big boost to us and the whole team as it requires hard work to make a show like this with such a different theme based on sports and to make it work amidst a sea of popular saas-bahu sagas,” says Ravindra.

The producer adds that there is a need to make more shows for children today. “Children’s shows have almost vanished. There are no children’s shows as such. Our show was about a child and about her dreams, which we showed for a good six months. In today's day and age, children are just used to show the childhood of an actor for one month or two months. The problems children face today are hardly shown. My show was based on that, made on that and we are happy that it got the award for the Best Children Show. More than the best show award I like the tagline children’s show. I think it will be a step ahead making children watch television again because children hardly watch television now. If I got the Best Children Show Award then I think children are watching and coming back to television,” he says.

He adds, “I think the era in which shows like Kacchi Dhoop, Ek Do Teen Chaar were there, television was not a money-spinning medium. Now it's a money-spinning medium. Everything is about money, TRPs and the children’s shows don't come into the main categories of daily soaps.”

Ravindra, himself, has a teenager son Aaroh at home and says that he, too, doesn’t have much to catch on the tube. “He doesn't watch television, especially daily soaps, he doesn't watch at all. He only watches YouTube content and he watches Netflix. He used to watch Meri Durga only till Durga was a child because he says there is no entertainment for him on television. In mythological shows, children have scope to be interested, but not in daily soaps. In mythological shows, I really think that children learn more about our culture. I think reality shows are just using children to make money,” he says.