Executive Dossier

‘I like subjects woven around relationships’ : Gajra Kottary

Published

25 years ago

June 21, 2001

Gajra Kottary started out as a journalist with The Statesman. She first shot into prominence in 1996, when her book – Fragile Victories – a collection of 13 women-centred short stories, was released. Five years later, she is in the news again for her serials – Hamare Tumhare on Zee and Panaah on DD1, both of which are doing well. Gajra has also written most episodes of Kya Aap Khush Hai on DD1.

This apart, Gajra is co-scripting the screenplay, along with Mahesh Bhatt, of two commercial movies to be directed by Tanuja Chandra and produced by Bhatt’s Vishesh Films.

Gajra’s work is a refreshing relief from the inanity of staid and oft-repeated subjects omnipresent on TV. Her stories, women-oriented and based on relationships, stand out due to the subjects they deal with and the treatment, which can best be described as path-breaking. This explains the popularity of her new serial – Hamare Tumhare – which is barely 15 episodes old.

For someone whose hands are so full with work, Gajra is unbelievably down to earth and unassuming. Her work must surely be keeping her busy, but she doesn’t show it. She manages all her roles – as wife (husband Sailesh is a journalist who has been off the circuit so to speak after being commissioned to write a book on the Tata group), mother to her two children – Advait and Aastha – and of course, a competent professional.

Indiantelevision.com’s correspondent, Amar, met Gajra at her residence in Mumbai’s western suburb of Bandra and came away struck by the inherent grace she possessed, which for him is the mark of a very beautiful person.

How did the idea of being a writer of TV serials and films first come to your mind?
Well, to be frank, it was not a planned move. It so happened that I had written a story. Anupam Kher, who I met at a party liked this story and decided to produce a movie based on it. But unfortunately the project ran into problems and never really took off. But I guess everything in life happens for the best. Once my first attempt at writing a movie failed, I got all the more determined to make it as a writer in this medium.

But writing a book and writing a serial or movie isn’t the same. How did you get to know the technalities associated with the work?
I realised that if I had to do well in this medium, I would have to learn the nuances from someone who has already excelled in the medium. So I took the initiative and personally approached Aruna Raje, who has always been an inspiration for me. We scripted episodes of Saturday Suspense and Rishtey together (both series appeared on Zee TV).

What are the natural instincts required to be an effective writer?
An effective writer needs to have a psychological insight into characters very different from his/her own along with a good sense of drama. Besides, he/she needs to be a keen observer and a sensitive human being.

What kind of subject normally appeals to you?
I like to dwell on subjects where the protagonist is a woman and the story is woven around relationships. By that I don’t mean the normal saas-bahu (mother-in-law and daughter-in-law) conflicts. The protagonist in my serials is a modern working woman and the issues explored and the treatment are more pragmatic and contemporary

While sketching your characters, do you go by an idealistic perspective or a practical perspective?
A practical perspective, absolutely. See, one thing that always needs to be borne in mind while writing a serial is that all characters need to have some shades of grey. This is very important for developing the various plots and sub-plots as the serial progresses.

How important is it for you to have a ready storyboard before you start working on the script?
Very important. Having the story ready gives me a definite direction to move in. For instance, in the case of Hamare Tumhare (about two sisters), at the very start, I had worked out the story for the first 20 episodes. Subsequently, I started focussing on the story and screenplay of four episodes at a time.

Do real-life incidents play a role in your writing?
Oh yes, they do. See, the idea of exploring the relationship between two sisters who have a huge age-gap between them had been there on my mind for some time. Often, I’ve observed that the elder sister out of guardian-like concern starts controlling the life of the younger sibling. While the younger sibling appreciates her love and care, too much of control also makes her resentful after a point. The elder sister is unable to comprehend this unprovoked revulsion and this creates a lot of misunderstanding between the two. To an extent, I feel something similar had happened between my sister and me and this forms the backdrop of the story of Hamare Tumhare.

Do you identify with any of the characters you’ve created?
With quite a few of them in fact. I identify with the character of Pallavi Joshi in Hamare Tumhare. In her youth, she had been impulsive and committed a few mistakes but over the years, she has matured into a very sensible and fine human being.

I also identify with the character Reena Wadhwa plays in Panaah (a story of two friends), whose strong sense of values stands out.

Have you been inspired by western movies/soaps in your writing?
No, not at all. I hardly watch English movies and have not had the time to follow a soap regularly either. If at all, I refer to my own collection of stories.

Do you write in English or Hindi?
In English and that’s mainly because I’ve been habituated to writing in this language. Once the screenplay is ready, the dialogue writers take over and write the dialogues in Hindi. But there are places where I feel a particular dialogue would produce the right impact and make a short note of it for the dialogue writers.

But I am fairly comfortable with Hindi also. I’ve written the lyrics of the title songs of Panaah and Kya Aap Khush Hai.

Does writing require isolation from people for long hours in order to concentrate?
Not really. Only when I am developing the story I need about two hours of unhindered concentration. Otherwise while writing the screenplay, I can manage with a few disturbances. I don’t mind helping out my kids with their homework or receiving phone calls even when I’m writing. In fact I like the feel of people around me. I would find it awkward to write the whole night, like I’ve heard some writers do.

What kind of a writing schedule do you follow?
See, I have a few in-days and a few out-days (laughs). Out days are when I like all my meetings for the week scheduled. On these days I am out of home the whole day and on returning home in the evening, I don’t think about work. ‘In Days’ are when I am at home the whole day and I write. I might write for a couple of hours in the morning, a couple in the afternoon and depending on my mood, a couple in the evening. In between, I try to give as much attention to my kids as possible.

Many writers feel that the authenticity of what they have visualised gets eroded at times if the director has different ideas? Have you ever felt the same?
Yes I have. But it works the other way also. Sometimes I have seen that a particular scene has come out much better than I’ve expected, thanks to the director’s improvisation. I guess a little bit of shift for better or worse is inevitable unless the same person is writing and directing.

But doesn’t that tempt you to don the mantle of a director yourself?
Oh, I would love to direct. But again I need to learn the nuances of the job. With the amount of writing I am doing nowadays, that is not possible at the moment.

How is writing for a serial different from writing for a movie?
There is a lot of differences. On TV, due to budgetary constraints, the visual aspect has to be limited. As a writer, I need to keep this in mind when I develop situations. This is not the case with movies. Again, like I’ve said before, on TV all characters need to have some shades of grey whereas in movies the protagonists generally symbolise moral correctness. TV requires you to carve out umpteen plots and subplots whereas movies require you to compress all your ideas in a few scenes.

What do you feel of the present dominance of daily soaps from the writer’s perspective?
Well, I haven’t written one but I believe it is very tough and demanding.

Do you personally watch daily soaps?
Personally, as a viewer, these soaps don’t attract me though I do watch them occasionally just to find out what makes them click. But then, we’re often told that upper middle class career women are not quite the target audience for these soaps. In fact, I could be writing a daily soap soon just to experience the challenge.

Akash Khurana was recently quoted as saying that there is a) no sincerity and passion in TV writing, b) no absorbing screenplays nowadays. Do you agree?
To a large extent, he is right. But that is also because TV by itself is a very limiting medium. The problem gets compounded when a serial keeps getting extended unnecessarily. For instance, Saans, which started off so well, began to sag when the screenplay of the later episodes had nothing new to offer. If I were writing Saans, I would rather have introduced some fresh characters to maintain the freshness.

Who are your favourite writers?
Krishna Sobti, Ismat Chughtai and Gulzaarsaab.

Which has been the happiest moment of your career?
The telecast of the first episode of Panaah which is my first totally independent work of fiction.

Where do you see yourself ten years down the line?
Having created a niche for myself as a writer of movies, though I wouldn’t be quitting television.

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Executive Dossier

Game on, fame on as Good Game hunts India’s first global gaming star

New reality show puts Rs 1 crore prize and global spotlight on India’s gaming talent.

Published

5 months ago

January 27, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Game faces on, pressure high India’s gaming ambitions are levelling up. Good Game, billed as the world’s first as-live global gaming reality show, has officially launched in India with a bold mission: to crown the country’s first Global Gaming Superstar.

Blending esports with mainstream entertainment, the show brings together competitive gaming, creativity and on-camera performance in a format that tests more than just joystick skills. Contestants will be judged on gameplay, screen presence and their ability to perform under pressure, reflecting how gaming has evolved from pastime to profession and pop culture currency.

Fronting the show are three high-profile ambassadors: actor and entrepreneur Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Indian cricket star Rishabh Pant, and gaming creator Ujjwal Chaurasia. The winner will take home Rs 1 crore ($100,000) among the largest prize pools for any Indian reality show along with the chance to represent India on a global stage.

Backed by a planned annual investment of up to Rs 100 crore, Good Game is also courting brand partners, promising a minimum reach of 500 million among India’s core youth audience. The creators position the show as a bridge between entertainment and interactive culture, offering long-format content, community engagement and commercial scale.

Auditions are now open to Indian citizens aged 18 and above, inviting amateur and professional gamers, creators and performers alike. Shortlisted candidates will be called for in-person auditions in Mumbai on 14 and 15 February, and in Delhi on 28 February and 1 March 2026.

With big money, big names and even bigger ambition, Good Game signals a shift in how India views gaming not just as play, but as performance, profession and prime-time spectacle.

Digital

SpotDraft hires new CMO and CFO to fuel global push for its AI contract platform

Alon Waks and Amit Sharma join as SpotDraft accelerates growth across key markets

Published

6 months ago

December 3, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

INDIA: SpotDraft has strengthened its senior ranks as it gears up for faster global expansion, naming Alon Waks as chief marketing officer and Amit Sharma as chief financial officer. The appointments follow the firm’s $54 million Series B round earlier this year and mark a push to scale across the Americas, EMEA and India.

The AI-powered contract-lifecycle-management platform has posted 100 per cent year-on-year growth in customer acquisition, counting Apollo.io, IPSY, Mixpanel, Oyster and Panasonic among its global clients. The firm processes more than one million contracts annually, with volumes up 173 per cent and nearly 50,000 monthly active users.

Waks, a veteran of Kustomer, Bizzabo, CreatorIQ, LivePerson and ZoomInfo, will steer global marketing and category positioning as legal teams adopt AI-driven tools. Sharma, who has led finance across scaling tech firms since 2016, will guide financial strategy, investor relations and market expansion.

Both hires aim to sharpen SpotDraft’s bid for a larger slice of the fast-growing legal-tech market, expected to exceed $63 billion by 2032. Co-founder and chief executive Shashank Bijapur said the company is focused on scaling go-to-market operations in the Americas, deepening leadership in EMEA, and accelerating AI capabilities for general counsels and legal-operations leaders.

Clients report shorter deal cycles and better alignment between legal and business teams. “What used to take weeks now happens in days,” said Abnormal Security senior legal operations manager Susan Koenig. DeepL head of legal operations André Barrow, said SpotDraft has helped reframe legal “from a cost centre to a generator of revenue”.

Executive Dossier

Outdoor Ads Get Smarter as LOC8 Shifts OOH from Visibility to Attention

AI, dwell time and real-world vision are rewriting the rules of what outdoor ads can do.

Published

7 months ago

November 28, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Out-of-home ads were once the wallflowers of marketing seen by everyone, noticed by few. But in an age where attention has become the world’s most fought-over currency, even billboards are getting a brain upgrade. Enter LOC8, OSMO’s AI-powered attention engine, quietly reshaping the old OOH playbook by measuring not just who could have looked at an ad, but who actually did. The shift is subtle but seismic: impressions are out, impact is in and data, not gut instinct, is calling the shots.

In a landscape where marketers question every rupee spent outdoors, LOC8 is turning lampposts, flyovers and traffic islands into precision-mapped attention laboratories. By crunching dwell time, visibility zones, perceptual size and real-world obstructions, the platform is dragging OOH into a future where creativity meets computer vision and where the best ideas aren’t just eye-catching, but eye-measured. From automotive facelifts to FMCG novelty and real estate trust-building, the message is clear, outdoor has stopped shouting and started listening. Indian Television Dot Com explores more about it in an Interview interview with OSMO co-founder Nipun Arora.

On how OSMO is shifting outdoor advertising from a visibility-led medium to an attention-led one through LOC8.

Traditional OOH has long been measured by visibility and impressions i.e how many people could see an ad. OSMO, through its proprietary AI platform LOC8, is shifting that narrative more towards likelihood of being noticed. Using computer vision and machine learning, LOC8 analyzes real-world video data to measure visibility zones, obstructions, dwell time and perceptual size; bringing precision to how attention is quantified outdoors. It moves the focus from mere impressions to quality of impressions, making OOH a data-verified, attention-led medium comparable to digital in accountability.

On how marketers can use LOC8’s dwell-time, visibility and perception insights to craft more effective, emotionally resonant OOH campaigns.

LOC8 helps brands understand how people truly experience outdoor media how long they look, from what distance, and under what conditions. By quantifying dwell time, visibility duration, and perceptual size; marketers can plan campaigns that align with real human viewing behavior. This empowers creative and strategy teams to design emotionally resonant storytelling where messaging, visual hierarchy and placement are optimized for how people actually notice and process OOH creatives.

About what LOC8 has revealed through campaigns like Renault Triber and Namaste India on how categories such as auto, FMCG and real estate use attention metrics to drive outcomes.

Each category uses attention data differently but all share one common goal: to convert outdoor visibility into measurable engagement.

• Automotive | Renault Triber

For the new Renault Triber facelift, bold creative met data-led planning through LOC8. By analyzing on-ground video data, LOC8 measured real audience attention across placements factoring in visibility zones, obstructions, traffic speed and perceptual size. This enabled Renault to identify corridors that delivered maximum reach, saliency and engagement, optimizing media efficiency and ROI.

• FMCG | Namaste India

In OOH, innovation is the hook and assets are the bait. But bait often hides the hook. With Loc8’s attention metrics, we ensured the bait wasn’t a hurdle, rather it became the perfect stage for innovation to deliver its full impact! The insight proved that creative novelty, when validated by attention data, drives deeper engagement and measurable brand lift.

• Real Estate

For luxury and real estate campaigns targeting HNI/UHNI audiences, attention patterns differ especially between front and rear passengers, who are often the core audience segment for premium sites. LOC8’s ability to distinguish rear vs. front visibility plays a critical role here. It helps identify sites that offer longer viewing windows and stronger perceptual dominance from the rear seat where decision-makers are most likely seated making it a key differentiator for premium and trust-led categories. Together, these insights prove that auto optimizes for impact, FMCG for recall, and real estate for trust visibility showing how attention metrics adapt to category goals while ensuring measurable outcomes.

On how attention analytics will shape the future of brand storytelling and media planning as OOH becomes more digitised and data-driven.

As outdoor digitizes, attention analytics will inform not just where to advertise but how stories are told in public spaces. This evolution transforms OOH from a static broadcast channel into a dynamic attention ecosystem, where creativity is optimized through evidence-based insight.

On how LOC8’s data-led framework helps marketers quantify OOH impact and make outdoor a more accountable, ROI-driven medium.

LOC8 bridges the gap between intuition and evidence. By quantifying metrics like visibility duration, attention opportunity index, and visual saliency rank, it allows brands to benchmark site performance and justify investment. This data-led approach brings transparency, comparability and ROI measurement to a medium historically driven by perception.

On how OSMO ensures AI and computer vision enhance creativity rather than reduce it to numbers.

OSMO believes that technology should enhance creativity, not overshadow it. LOC8’s attention models reveal what naturally draws the human eye helping creative teams refine design cues, contrast, and visual hierarchy for greater impact. By merging art and science, LOC8 empowers creativity with intelligence.

About the creative best practices and design cues LOC8 has uncovered regarding what truly captures consumer attention outdoors.

LOC8’s visual cognition analysis has surfaced clear patterns across campaigns:

• High contrast and minimal messaging outperform cluttered designs.

• Motion cues draw significantly longer dwell times.

• The first two seconds are critical, creatives must establish focus instantly.

• Contextual alignment between the creative and its environment increases attention by over 30%.

These learnings offer a scientific foundation for creative effectiveness helping brands design OOH that’s visually magnetic and emotionally memorable.

On how attention metrics will integrate into omnichannel planning where OOH, digital and social work together for unified brand impact.

Attention can become the unifying KPI across OOH, digital and social to creates seamless storytelling continuity, where outdoor triggers digital engagement. The future of omnichannel planning lies in attention-led integration ensuring that campaigns don’t just reach audiences everywhere but truly capture and hold their focus.