Ganesh Krishnamurthy, 76, sits back on his couch in Chennai, worried about Sreemoyee and her estranged husband Anindya in Kolkata. “Anindya needs a stent for his heart, Sreemoyee’s former love interest has reappeared in her life while their son wants to leave them and go away to another country... Things are at a critical juncture and I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait to see what happens to Sreemoyee and her family,” he rues. ‘Sreemoyee’ isn’t a relative but the title character of a popular Bengali serial who keeps the septuagenarian company for a few hours every evening. Or at least she did till the coronavirus lockdown shut down television production across the country.Unlike the younger tech-savvy population which relies on the web and OTT platforms to stave off boredom while locked down, one cannot underrate the role of television in the lives of the older generation that grew up in an analogue era, navigating channels instead of the web. Now, they are trapped in a cycle of reruns since TV networks have no new episodes to telecast.“It’s quite depressing that I am left with nothing these days,” says Patna resident Sarita Sinha , 62, for whom a diet of Bhojpuri soaps was her only escape from monotony and the darkness of the ongoing pandemic. Thankamani A, a 50-year-old homemaker in Thiruvananthapuram, is “mentally preparing for the coming weeks” after her son told her that her favourite serials may soon stop airing while those like Ashok Mangalkar from Nagpur, who sought refuge in the comfort of Marathi soaps, feels a void. “I miss those evenings of watching daily soaps and afterwards discussing the stories and the character with my wife,” he says.Leena Gangopadhyay, writer and creative director of popular Bengali soaps, has been receiving countless messages from anxious viewers. “All the social media sites are flooded with messages. The mother of an executive of the channel that telecasts ‘Sreemoyee’ is so addicted that she has personally requested for the serial’s storyline,” says Gangopadhyay.How long the delays will continue depends on how long the lockdown lasts. But it’s wise for viewers to come to terms with the fact that the next month (or more) will not follow their usual TV rhythm. Pretty much all prime-time scripted series and non-fiction shows across languages have exhausted their banks of unaired episodes and are now trying to figure what to do in terms of content.If Doordarshan brought back 80s cult hit “Ramayana” to keep its viewers occupied, Hindi channels like Zee TV have decided to dip into their collaboration with ALTBalaji’s OTT repository and dig out three new “finite shows”. “It felt like the right time to see if audiences take to these three finite series which feature very popular television faces of all time,” explained Aparna Bhosle, business head, Zee TV. “Also, it made sense to offer finite series in the current context. The lockdown is temporary, post which we would resume shoots and continue with our usual line-up of daily fiction shows.”Some of the leading Tamil and Malayalam television channels, like Star Vijay , Zee Tamil and Colors, internally assessed the available content and a few found a way to judiciously manage fresh content by cutting down on viewing time of the episodes to prolong shows for a few more days. Content providers for Sun TV even opted to work double-shifts that went well into the early morning of March 19 to capture as much fresh content as possible after the Film Employees Federation of South India’s announcement to stop shoots much before the three-week lockdown came into force.With more than 60-70% content of the channels suspended, according to Ranjan Satapathy , head of Tarang, an Odia entertainment channel, channels have resorted to dubbed versions of popular Hindi serials apart from reruns of soaps and reality shows, old Odia films, and religious programmes. The Kannada television industry that usually keeps a larger reserve of 20 shows too is facing uncertainty with production on pause.In the Telugu-speaking states where the popularity of TV serials often overrides the publicity given to new film releases, fresh episodes came to a grinding halt from March 21, with at least 70 fiction and 20 non-fiction shows not being telecast, according to Telugu Television Producers Council president A Prasada Rao The last time that the Indian television industry had taken such a hit was back in 2008 when more than 100,000 workers had gone on an indefinite “non-cooperation” strike against low wages, late pay and long hours.“But unlike the past when production houses would keep a bank of at least 10-15 unaired episodes, today one doesn’t keep a backup of more than one or two,” says Ashoke Dubey, general secretary, Federation of Western India Cine Employees. “It’s mainly because TRP ratings fluctuate and determine the nature of the next few episodes that are shot a day or two prior to being aired,” he explains.As the entertainment industry stares at loss and disarray, Radikaa Sarathkumar, who heads the Tamil production house Radaan Mediaworks, says: “We did not expect the virus to impact our lives to this extent.” The audience probably echoes that.