I’ve been visiting Quora since the time they were an invite-only community. Unfortunately, these days I get the feeling that the website has undergone a remarkable change with the influx of new users – especially those from India. I’m not alone in my opinion since there’s an entire section dedicated to discussing Indians on Quora. My narrow point being there was  a lot of interesting discussions before it turned into “a huge urban middle class-engineering college-Indian circlejerk”. Greatest exhibit for such behaviour? Head to the section that discusses Indian television.

One fine day, I found myself reading an ostensibly serious question – “Why can’t Indian television networks produce a world class serial like the Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, LOST, Dexter, House MD, White Collar, Hustle , Prison Break etc?” Was this question meant as an introspection of our entertainment standards or to understand the glorification of American TV shows? So I browsed the answers and was hoping someone would try put this in perspective. Never before have I head-desked harder on reading the highest voted answer (with 5000+ votes!). It was a sweet little rant that went back to the one thing we Indians love to do – gloat about our ancient mythology.

Look I’m no anti-Hindu or subscribe to any extremist ideology. But I find it amusing to use the past as a point of reference to highlight our achievements. Especially if the past happened more than 3000 years ago. So the anonymous answer went about detailing why the Mahabharat would pull the pants down on George Martin’s ASOIF and logically extended that point to prove the superiority of the TV adaptation of both the books. Without admitting that we make some really bad TV shows, the answer cherry-picked few examples from 20 years ago to prove his point – “India did make some great shows”.

I sat there fuming for a few minutes before deciding to plunge in myself. For the record, here is my take on the topic.

Answering such a loaded question is never going to be easy. And a critical examination should never be made by only looking at it from a viewer’s perspective. Of course the viewer would only be able to relate to what they saw in the past and compare it with the present. But a lot has changed within the TV industry over the past 30 years. Quality of TV shows is the end product of an entire eco-system that produces, options, monetizes & distributes this content. There are big for-profit corporations that have specialised talent working to fulfill their responsibilities. The viewers are at the end of a long supply chain and by my understanding, they seem really pissed about what they see.

To use a broad analogy, this Quora question is akin to comparing the success of a Maruti Suzuki Swift Desire in India and a Ford Focus in North America. Both are sedans but they are made from different raw materials, different factories and are meant for different customers. Similarly, TV shows are the end product of a larger industry that manufactures creativity commodities for their local markets. If you are comparing the two, we must have some common base rules established first.

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