Having been associated with top channels like Sony Entertainment Television, Star One and Star Plus where she worked as Creative Head, Fiction and Non-fiction head respectively, Monika Shergill is a big name in the television industry today. Now reports are out that she has decided to move on and has quit from her position in Star Plus. We at Tellychakkar.com spoke to her about her journey in the industry and more for our ‘Behind the Lens’ segment. Excerpts: Tell us about your journey in the television industry? I’ve had a very exciting and challenging journey in the industry because of the range of projects I have worked on. Having started by doing hardcore fiction shows at Sony, I moved on to youth programming at Star One. I followed it up by doing some interesting reality shows like Zara Nachke Dikha and MahaYatra for Star One as the creative director at the channel. To round it up, all I can say is that my journey was full of fun and I learned a lot. Though I went on to be the non-fiction head at Star Plus, I have actually spent more time working in the fiction space (almost seven to eight years). Continue… I’ve done shows like Devi, Heena, Rihaee and a lot of Balaji soaps like Kkusum with which I was associated for a long time. I also went on to do shows like Boogie Woogie, Aahat, Akela, Ek Ladki Anjaani Si and Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin. Both Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin and Devi were very close to my heart as they were diametrically opposite shows. While Devi was a highly intense project, Jassi was a phenomenal show that I got to work for Sony. At Star One, I did shows like Dill Mill Gayye and Miley Jab Hum Tum. Then I came up with Zara Nachke Dikha; we had a great time doing this reality show. I also worked on other shows like The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and Pehchan Kaun. Between fiction and non-fiction, what do you enjoy the most? I cannot choose between the two as both of these involve story telling. In fact, when I started my career, I started as an environmental reporter. I did that for five years after which I became the producer of travel shows. In the media, they have a strange division about the kind of content one wants to do, but for me, it’s all about story telling. It has always been the same. In fact, even when I was reporting and when I shifted to producing shows, for me it was just storytelling. It was the same even when I made the big shift to non-fiction from fiction. At a time when fiction wasn’t big I was completely into it. I think content is content, no matter what you’re doing. It’s story telling from point A to B. Both the viewers and you should enjoy this journey. How do you mange to balance your professional and personal life being a married working woman? Honestly, there is no balance. We are in a medium that has its own pressure as its extremely demanding. Being married is one thing and being a working mother is something else. A lot of times, you end up compromising on your family front as you know the family members will understand and support you. There are times when you manage to balance the two but then again at the kick start of a new project, you start doing crazy work. Though I love working but I can say that it’s been a tough life. How important are TRPs for you? Unfortunately, we cannot shy away from it. I believe in it because everybody needs a yardstick to measure especially if you’re selling a product. Hence, I must know the amount of sales I make and the revenues I get. At the end of the day, shows that we make are a product and we must know the revenue we are looking at. But the current system of rating with the size of country we have is not sufficient. In fact, we have a varied country where people staying in the same household have different tastes. And with so many single TV homes, the system is unfair. We’ve heard there are only 8,000 TRP meters? Well actually, that’s not my space to comment upon but it’s a known fact that the sample size is too small. And to have a better reflection of the society that we cater to, one must measure it in a far more evolved fashion to meet up with the changing taste of people. As the non-fiction head of Star Plus, did you keep a tab on the doings of other channels? When one is in the business, it’s important to keep a tab on what your competitors and broadcasters are doing. Like what content are they making and how is it being received by the audience. In fact, every broadcaster is concerned about the programming lineup of the other. As we are all in the same market, we are serving the same consumer and we are also approaching the same advertiser for revenue. Hence, it’s important to have a different line up for your own channel. At the same time, it’s also important to see what others are doing to stay a step ahead. Finally, how was it working for Satyamev Jayate? Working for Satyamev Jayate, and its entire crew including Aamir Khan was a thrilling experience.