It is said that even re-runs of Sarabhai versus Sarabhai manage to earn a better TRP than most of the new shows being telecast on television today. It is also a known fact that compilation DVDs of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi sell more than a number of new movies.

At the same time, it is also not unknown to anyone that a list of top five sitcoms in the history of Indian television will not feature any show from the last five years.

Sad, but true is the fact that in the recent past the Indian television industry has not been able to produce any good comedy serial which will make you forget all your woes and laugh the way Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Idhar Udhar and Sarabhai versus Sarabhai did years back. While a number of reality shows based on comedy (Great Indian Laughter Challenge, Comedy Circus, etc) have been successful, apart from Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma, not a single comedy serial has been able to manage good TRPs and make viewers laugh.

Most industry insiders seem to think that high risk of failure and low profitability of sitcoms are reasons why producers and broadcasters are not too keen on making new shows.

Explains Deven Bhojwani, who has made the audience roll on the floor with laughter in various avatars, "If you dig deeper, you will find that the top three television channels today are not in favour of sitcoms. They are more inclined towards game-based reality shows and serials in the saas bahu genre. There are some sitcoms that are telecast in the second rung channels, but since they do not have high TRPs, we do not get to know about them." Possible, but even in the not-so-popular channels there is hardly any sitcom being telecast.

Adds Pankaj Saraswat, the brain behind The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, "A sitcom needs a niche audience to be successful, but that is not a requirement for comedy shows which is why today you hardly see any sitcoms while the list of comedy-based reality shows is growing." To prove his point, Saraswat says, "The Eighties and Nineties had a completely different audience whose taste was different and that is the reason sitcoms during those decades were immensely successful. Plus demand and supply went hand in hand during those days. Today, the situation is completely different. People want more of reality shows. After TGILC was successful, there are a number of clones of the show that have come up and all of them are doing well."

Actor Ali Asgar, while agreeing on the niche audience factor for sitcoms, has a slightly different viewpoint on the issue. "It is easy to make a popular saas bahu serial but very difficult to have a successful sitcom simply because the audience is much more niche. I feel that is the main reason why producers and broadcasters think twice before investing in a comedy show." He adds, "Comedy is present in all serials – be it a thriller or a serious family drama. All producers and broadcasters want a comic element in their shows. But the ease with which the audience relates and accepts a saas or a bahu, will not be the same while accepting the comedian."

While it is the ease of making family dramas and the difficulty in making a sitcom that is making producers and broadcasters stay away from it, the TRP and niche target audience factors are proving to be the last nails in the coffin for sitcoms.

Says Kumar Bhatia, scriptwriter (Great Indian Comedy Show) turned film-director, "Most serials are made with the view to reach the lowest strata of the society. Comedy is a very intelligent genre and very difficult to make since it has a niche audience. A family drama may easily appeal to viewers from all layers of the society but the same cannot be said about sitcoms. It is very easy to make thousands cry, but much more difficult to make a single person laugh."

He admits the difficulty in making a comedy serial and explains, "Sitcoms are very difficult to make and require a lot of thought, time and effort. English shows like I Love You Lucy, Mr Bean, etc are still popular decades after they have been made because of the thought and effort that went in making them. But in today's world of fast food and instant coffee it is just not possible. Broadcasters and producers have meetings and decide to launch a show in two weeks flat! In such a short time, you can launch a run-of-the-mill family drama, but not a comedy show."

Deven Bhojwani, who also directed some episodes of Sarabhai versus Sarabhai feels that there is a problem with scripts and actors as well. "Sitcoms require a different class of scripts and actors. I don't see too many of either today. While I do not want to say that there is no one who can write a good comedy script or act it out, there definitely is a dearth of talent in this area," he says.

Agrees Ali Asgar, "We don't have scriptwriters who can be good storytellers. In a sitcom you will need to narrate a simple story through dialogues. And that is where most of our scriptwriters fail."

Kumar, however, has a different take on this and feels, "Money is also a very important factor behind the lack of good sitcoms. Today Shekhar Suman walks in to a show and gets huge amounts for saying 10 lines. And the person who writes those lines does not even get 5% of that. How can you expect good scripts if the pay is so poor?" Makes sense, since sitcoms rely heavily on dialogues and storylines.

Such has been the dearth of good sitcoms that producers of successful shows have been requested time and again to come up with new episodes. "There have been many requests for a new season of Sarabhai versus Sarabhai. But we have resisted the temptation of that. We feel a comedy series should end when the scriptwriters are still in a position to write more and the audience also wants more. That is precisely what happened with our show and that is why people still remember it so fondly," says JD of Hats Off Productions.

Looks like all of us will have to wait longer to have a good laugh over a new sitcom and be satisfied with reruns of old shows.