By Vinta Nanda

My massive appeal to all the television networks and channels.

I’ve been knocking on most of your doors since 2012, begging all of you to take behaviour change communication seriously, use the power you have on captive audiences all over India to motivate them to follow best practices.

We’re in a state of emergency.

People in rural India are frightened and don’t know what to do in the present crisis brought by the #Covid19outbreak of the #secondwaveofcoronavirus.

Please, please rework your stories to communicate and inform them about how to handle this terrorising moment in time.

Stop your mad rush for #TRPs and slip in stories that’ll inspire people to manage their lives, save themselves from anxiety and mental health issues.

Tell them how to deal with isolation and quarantine when they encounter symptoms.

My young colleague who was compelled to leave the city for his village last year when the pandemic struck has been telling me horrific stories from his village where nothing is accessible.

Almost the entire village is sick and he’s already lost one family member while the others are struggling.

This is one village in #UttarPradesh – imagine what’s going on in lakhs of villages across India!

They’re gripped with fear and lack of available resources.

Most of them don’t have electricity for long hours because a small storm plays havoc with the wiring held up on dodgy poles.

But, at the slightest chance they get, they watch your serials and swear by them.

I beg all of you with utmost humility – leave everything aside and find your drama in what people are experiencing today.

Feel free to call me, I’ll help all of you out, I’ve worked on behaviour change communication through storytelling from my first series #Tara onwards.

I’ll help you guys find the balance between entertainment and information.

And to my friends and colleagues in the advertising industry – it’s time for you to tell your clients that you’re not going to do crap on their behalf just to add wealth to their already super-rich organisations.

Stop backing powerful producers, self-appointed schlock-stirrers just because they have investors backing them.

Go to storytellers, put your weight behind them and just see the difference you will make in the world.

Let stories drive you instead of you driving stories to suit your marketing strategies.

You won’t be ever able to forget that those are people who were alive yesterday, now floating lifeless in our holy rivers.

They were flesh and blood a few hours ago, they were loved by their families and communities.

Please, please guide the power you wield to spread love, hope and be compassionate in whatever you put out, in the name of creativity, in the universe.

Most of you don’t need me because you already know what to do, but yet I’m just a call away.

Please, please put everything aside and do this from right now.

Vinta Nanda

Tel 9820040680