Vinta Nanda, best known as the writer behind the marathon serial Tara, spoke of the degeneration of content in television soaps and programmes.

Social commitment, she said, need not necessarily mean making documentaries, but being sensitive to viewers' tastes and thinking about the impact of their writing on the multitudes who watch TV. Television currently portrays a society that is non-existent, she said. Social workers have to spend days undoing the damage wreaked upon gullible audiences by regressive soaps, she pointed out.

Nanda, who has seen television evolve from the heady days of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, said that stereotypes have begun to stare everyone in the face from practically every channel. "Mediocrity sells, while excellence is an uncalculated risk", she pointed out. Social research is very important before scripting a serial that may reinforce blind beliefs or extol regressive practices, she warned.