Why Big Bollywood Stars are flocking to television

Television has been seeing a number of new players venturing into the field of production, with established filmmakers and actors, too, showing a keen interest. Deepali Dhingra takes a look at this growing trend

Amitabh Bachchan had already taken the plunge. Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan had also done it. So it was only a matter of time that Aamir Khan too, succumbed to the lure of the small screen.

But when the intellectual actor stepped into television, he took it one step further -- by producing the show himself. Satyamev Jayate was not just Khan's launch vehicle for being in front of the camera on the small screen, but the first television show for his production company Aamir Khan Productions as well.

The first season received a positive response from critics and audience alike, and work on the second season of the show is already underway.

This year, a number of new players are expected to join the expanding world of television. Big B, who has successfully hosted quite a few seasons of Kaun Banega Crorepati and is all set to host another season, is joining hands with Endemol India to co-produce a fiction series to be aired on Sony Entertainment Television.

With this show, he will revive his television production company Saraswati Creations that has earlier produced shows like Dekh Bhai Dekh. The creative director of the show will be Anurag Kashyap. Anil Kapoor has acquired the rights of the American series 24, of which he was a part and is producing its Indian version for Colors.

With Satyamev Jayate, Aamir Khan made his foray into small screen as a producer last year

And while Bachchan and Kapoor are still in the process of bringing out their television shows, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has already made his television debut with the serial Saraswatichandra that airs on Star Plus.

There were rumours that Anurag Basu will be making an Indian adaptation of the hit American series Prison Break, but the director recently denied it. But he did admit to a leading daily that he is working on two ideas for the small screen.