Live Telecast

Live Telecast is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language horror thriller television series written and directed by Venkat Prabhu and starring Kajal Aggarwal, Vaibhav, Anandhi, Ashwin Kumar Lakshmikanthan, Daniel Annie Pope and Priyanka Nair.

The series revolves around Jennifer Matthew (Kajal Aggarwal) and her television production crew who are temporarily residing in a house for filming a reality TV show.

[3] The story revolves around a group of college friends, Jenny, Ashwin, Aravind, Kanan, Selma, Saleem, Volga, Kalai, and Shekhar who work on a reality show 'Dark Tales' on Nam TV.

Before the victims are invited to the stage amid a lot of cheering and applause, the audience is treated to a clumsy re-enactment of the ordeal of the survivors.

Jennifer (Kajal Agarwal) is a selfish, TRP-hungry woman whose lack of moral responsibility to promote scientific temperament among her audience is her biggest gift.

The show's writer, Kanan, has a problem with her habit of distorting facts and confronts her but Jenny brushes all his warnings off and tells him that they are giving the public what they want: interesting content.

The team is enjoying the party when Aravind receives a call from an unknown number and rushes to Jenny, asking her to switch on the TV.

However, a few days later the soap opera's higher views threaten Dark Tales and Jennifer's lack of responsibility hits a new low.

[6] In an interview, Prabhu stated that the script does not resemble the American streaming series Stranger Things, which is based on paranormal activities but it will be related to the people of rural areas in Tamil Nadu.

[14] Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express wrote "Venkat Prabhu is out of his depth as he seems to have exhausted his creative well in putting together a web show that tries to marry hunger for TRPs with the horror genre.

"[18] Janani K of India Today wrote "Kajal Aggarwal's maiden web series [sic] Live Telecast, directed by Venkat Prabhu, gives us a been-there-seen-that feeling throughout.

"[19] The critic from The Times of India wrote "While Live Telecast isn't bad per se, given the talents involved, it is a disappointment.

In his defence, Venkat Prabhu has revealed that he had written this story much before his debut Chennai 600028, but this very fact should have made the makers wary as by now, we have seen so many horror-coms of this ilk as feature films.

"[20] Ranjani Krishnakumar of Firstpost wrote "The worst part of Live Telecast, though, is that Venkat Prabhu has no sensitivity regarding what his creation means and does.

Workplace sexual harassment, voyeurism of the TV viewing public, violence against women, extra-judicial killing by the police — all of them come and go, superficially, without thought or any serious exploration.