When we are watching some variety entertainment programmes in Marathi on the Marathi TV channels offering them, one thing that has clearly come to the notice is that they are not totally marathi based. Many variety entertainment programmes, whether dance or song based are slowly deviating from our own marathi language. We see lot of Hindi songs coming on these programmes and the hosts and participants speaking in English and Hindi occasionally. If this continues, soon the Marathi TV channels will have less of Marathi and more of Hindi or English. There are plenty of Hindi channels offering Hindi song based programmes, then how are we different from them ? We already have other regional language channels, who are doing their best to preserve the culture of their respective language, then why our Marathi channels shouldn’t be strict about popularizing our language ?

Even in some of the Kitchen recipe based programmes held during the afternoon hour, some of the experts showing the recipes are not conversant with Marathi and they speak either broken marathi or Hindi. The channels presenting such programmes should keep in mind that such programmes are watched by many women from rural Maharashtra, who don’t know any other language than Marathi. Are they not taxing them? Can they not find any Marathi speaking recipe expert in Maharashtra ? But, among the hosts for these Kitchen recipe programmes, Prashant Damle makes ‘Aamhi Saare Khavaiyye’ more interesting through his spontaneous reactions and body language.

Now, talking about the Healthcare based programmes, some of the Marathi entertainment and news channels including our own DD Sahyadri( e.g. Hello Doctor!) are inviting guests, who are not able to speak correct Marathi. So, we find the host asking the question in Marathi and the guest answering the same in broken Marathi, Hindi or English. If we ourselves are not going to draw a line about the compulsory requirement of speaking in Marathi, our own deserving Marathi speaking experts will never get a chance.

by Ulhas Shirke © MMW