From the heart of a Fan!

Richard Bach said, "When you love someone set him free, if he comes back to you he is yours else he never was".

I read this when I was in class 9 on my tuition sir's wall and have always followed that as the mantra of my life ever since whether it is about people or things in life and it has always made my life simpler.

At the cost of sermonizing, and perhaps not being able to reach out to many people who will not relate to my post, here are a few things I would like to add.

A few years ago, I was an enthusiastic fan too ( I still am, I always will be).. I would take every thing by face value, get hurt by the same set of facts that would be placed in front of me as they are doing to you today.. I always wondered why certain things didnt happen the way we wanted when the solution and the answer seemed most obvious.

Well thats where we all make the mistake .. of thinking we know it all, we understand it all ... Some of us may be perceptive,some may feign indifference ... but at the end of the day, we are all people who spend endless hours of our precious day thinking about fictional characters, their plotlines and the actors who portray it! Amazing get away it for sure is ... But we somewhere we choose to ignore or forget one basic truth - that it is a show after all... An entity that comprises of not just actors and and a crew present on the set but also a bunch of people who work behind it and make it a living reality.

It is very easy to say "shitty episode" they could have done better ... But that "shitty episode" also amounts the same expenditure, the same time and the same amount of energy at all levels ..would you tell someone if you didnt like what they wore or the way they spoke? You wouldnt do it to the face atleast... but here on a forum we have the liberty to do so in the name of freedom of speech and expression ...we call it constructive criticism.

Today you are upset because someone has passed on some information to you, which you choose to believe over the rest only because the blame game seems the most convenient route to take ...  But didnt you thrive on the pictures, the news and the interactions that came your way during the course of the show?

Who was Arnav? Who was Khushi? And why did you fall in love with them? Would you have imagined Shravan in Baat Humari Pakki Hai and Gunjan in Miley Jab Hum Tum could ever be paired with one another two years ago? Well, someone did, and thats why they are our beloved ArShi or SaRun today!

Do we leave the hands of people and back out at a time when things go wrong, and perhaps at a time when they need you the most? Well, would we do it to a friend? Would we do it for a person who has been the reason for our happiness in the last year and a half? The reasons for watching a show might vary, and each of us is free to endorse would thought process, but does that mean we will humilaite every other point of view just because you dont agree with it, and you see no other way of resisting it. Just as you should not go ovr board praising someone to skies, one should not even get down to name calling and personal attacks just because you are angry!

In a forum with lakhs of people, difference of opinion is bound to happen and some tend to obviously dominate the others... In a group there are always very few leaders and many many followers ... we are not here to show our clout, neither are we here to prove a point to anyone... If at all we switch on our television screens at a certain time in the day, we do it because we derive happiness out of it...

We cant hold someone at ransom and say, end it if you cant do it! Thats not a call you can take ..!! Should a show just be shut down because an actor, who has worked for a year and a half decides to leave for his own reasons? Will you also take a call and speculate on his behalf why he would have left? And then if he returns will you choose your own reasons to justify why he came back? Why?

For just 20 minutes of happiness in a day? Is that all you want from life? There is no fun in begging, forcing, requesting someone to make things to happen your way... the beauty is in the spontaneity, it is in the fact that the mention of something instantly puts a smile on your face. If it doesn't and the control doesn't lie in your hands, do something to get yourself off it, because you cannot control another actions! And what will happen even if you get it after that? A few days of emotional victory? The cycle will begin yet again! You will be disappointed, hurt and disgusted this time since you all you will remember will be the effort and the toil that went into getting something you are not happy with!

Whats beautiful should stay beautiful ... While its wonderful that you are ever inquisitive and care about every thing related to the show always remember to cut off beyond a point. Even our own siblings do not like it when we tell them what they are supposed to do right!

When people make an effort to bridge the gap between them and us, respect it, do not turn it into a sounding board to bombard them with lessons of what they are supposed to do. Are they telling us what kind of audience we are supposed to be?

When we started Rangmunch, we had made up our mind that we will become that bridge that will give the story behind the making of a story, so we hope we will believe us when we tell you this. We have sat on those sets and watched each of the scenes we finally see on screen being shot. We see the number of takes, re-takes, rehearsalss and close ups that happen. We have closely observed the Director, the Camera Men, the lightmen, the sound department work in coordination with one another without tiring. 

While it might be very easy to say, why cant they just do it this way, or that way, we now know why they cant and what they could have done had they really had an opportunity to. I hope you will appreciate the fact that this is a version that is coming from someone who has been a fan, felt every emotion of what you have said, has been curious to know the craft and hence has also seen what happens on the other side of the hill..

You can now go ahead and decide to call me a mouth-piece and whatever you choose to, but this is the story of every show, that is plagued with the issues of shooting episodes, changing actors, disrupting plot lines and other issues that go into making a TV show complete! When there is a crest there has to be a trough and vice-versa.

Avoid all heart burn, sit back, watch the show or do not watch it, obviously that's a call you have always had in your hands. But for your own sanity, get rid of the anger, the bitterness and malice that spoils the sanctity of what you once loved or perhaps still love!

Ending this with Tennyson's lines, "It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all".

Stay Happy!!