Only few days ago, they were taking the side of ‘Marathi Asmita’ over the utterance of Rahul Gandhi in Bihar, when he gave regional colour to NSG force, besides making comments on Mumbai. But, after the visit of this parliamentarian to Mumbai, they started praising him so much that they even forgot to telecast other most important news in state and country. After the whole day non stop praise, this even went on for the next day morning (as some of the channels just have the repeat telecast of the previous day evening news). In this race for TRP’s, the only news channel which differed from others was ‘Zee 24 Taas’. They quickly came out of the ‘Rahul Booadcast’ and shifted their onus to important local news.

As it is, besides regular news, Zee 24 Taas’ does offer some of the interesting programmes like ‘Jara Hatke’ , ‘Comedy Tadka’ , ‘Around the World’ ‘Jag Udyacha’ ‘Ghar Sampada’ and ‘Marathi Paul Padte Pudhe’ offering variety through them. So, while other Marathi News channels continued with their Rahul Prem next day morning , Zee 24 Taas highlighted the story of attempted kidnapping of a 9 year old girl – Rasika Patil from Diva village in Mumbra(Thane) by two youths- Maurya and Afzal from UP. Perhaps, they thought that this news needed more attention to make the parents from poor families aware of the modus operandi of such migrant criminals. Zee 24 Taas journalists have done many investigative stories in the past and the copying in Exams supported by examiners in Latur, was just one of them in the recent past to open the eyes of administration.

If news have to be popularized among people of Maharashtra, no doubt they have to be non-bias; but they have to be ‘quality news’ to make people aware of certain facts, educate them and be in the larger interest of the people. It’s not that the other 24 hour Marathi news channels are not quality filled, but in short, they are competing with each-other; like some of our Hindi channels. Maharashtra is known for its pride and so are the people from Maharashtra, who have high respect for their language and culture. No wonder, Marathi films with quality have received more attention during the recent past, almost giving a big scare to Bolllywood in the state of Maharashtra.

Zee Talkies, which is also a separate movie channel, is helping the Marathi viewers to track all the Marathi films of the past. Now, with their entry into Film distribution, it has brought Golden days to Marathi cinema and ‘Natarang’ is the best example before all of us. Zee Marathi channel which is offering all round entertainment with reality shows ,serials and Kitchen recipe shows is also doing well, but it should focus more on realistic subjects.

by Ulhas Shirke © MMW