It's been over four months since the first lockdown was announced and though the restrictions have eased up across the country in the past month, many people still remain restricted to their homes. While some are using the time to catch up on pending tasks, some are using it to learn new skills. So if you are among the latter and have a penchant for public speaking, then what this team of Malayalam television actors and anchors has created is for you. They joined hands to teach anchoring, scriptwriting and much more, and all you need to do is join their WhatsApp group, Veetil irunnu anchoring padikam (learn anchoring from home). And at the end of the course, you will receive a certificate, and if you're good enough, you might just find yourself a job offer!
The brainchild of Pradeep Murathathur, a producer of several Malayalam TV shows, the course is aimed at giving opportunities to those looking for the right guidance in the media industry. Speaking about the origin of this WhatsApp group, Pradeep says, "We are a group of close friends who are/have been anchors and scriptwriters with over 15 years of experience in the media industry. We started this WhatsApp group and invited people who are interested in anchoring, scriptwriting and so on, to join the group. Now, we have four groups with over 600 members," he shares with excitement. And before you jump to conclusions, the course is not just some random discussions by resource persons, it has a defined syllabus. "We follow the University of Kerala's Centre for Adult, Continuing Education and Extension's TV presentation course. Apart from that, we discuss topics like body language, styling, dress code, make-up and much more," shares Soumya Anand, one of their resource persons, who has been anchoring for over 15 years now.
Lockdown or not, the classes start at 7:50 pm and go on till 10 pm. "During these two hours, resource persons discuss particular topics, their experiences in the respective field they work in and end the session by setting specific tasks. Participants complete the assignment and post it in the group. This will be monitored by us regularly. People who complete the course successfully are given certificates by the Television Promotion Council. Deserving candidates are selected and are offered opportunities to host programmes," adds Soumya. The course syllabus is prescribed for 120 hours. The group is now split into four batches. To add spice to the already-interesting journey, they inaugurated the third batch with popular Malayalam actors. How, you ask? Soumya clarifies, "Actors like Vijay Babu, Rajeev Pillai and Sangeetha Mohan sent their videos to us. We then posted each video on the group at a specific time. The inauguration was a success." Sangeetha Mohan is one of the group's most prominent tutors, Pradeep informs us.
The mode of communication is Malayalam, so anyone who can speak the language can join the group. There are no age or qualification limits. "We have youngsters as well as retired individuals who are eagerly looking to explore the field. Our aim is to give them the opportunity," shares Pradeep who has been spending most of his time conducting interviews of worthy aspirants during the lockdown. Discussing their future prospects, Pradeep concludes, "Once the lockdown is completely lifted and things go back to normal, we are planning to continue our workshops the conventional way."
