From Sharmila Tagore and Urmila Matondkar in Zindagi two decades ago, to Hema Malini who is currently seen in Kamini-Damini on Sahara One, cine stars have long been tempted to grace the small screen.

Nutan was the first screen-queen to use television to maximum advantage in Rakesh Chowdhary's Mujrim Haazir Hai in the '80s.

Today, you have actresses like Karisma Kapoor in Sahara One's Karishma — The Miracles Of Destiny, Raveena Tandon in Sahara's Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Sridevi in Sahara's Malini Iyer.

But the fact remains that film icons have never really been able to gain a foothold in the home-viewing medium.

Except, of course, the stupendously successful Kaun Banega Crorepati with Amitabh Bachchan.

The pioneering game show turned around the fortunes of Star Plus, making it the front-runner in TRPs.

Thereafter, the me-too syndrome took over, with Zee launching Sawaal Dus Crore Ka with Anupam Kher and Manisha Koirala and Sony bagging Govinda to host Jeeto Chappad Phaad Ke, both of which were channel-devastating failures.

"Honestly, I did Sawaal Dus Crore Ka for the money. It was tempting and the work was quick," says Manisha Koirala in hindsight.

Govinda, on the other hand, refuses to believe that Chappad Phaad Ke failed. "According to me, success and failure are relative terms. I enjoyed my stint on television and wouldn't mind going back to the medium."

With these game shoes flopping big-time, channel heads had to invent other ways of putting movie stars on television.

Sony Entertainment came up with a match making, potential moolah-machine called Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai with Madhuri Dixit. It turned out to be the channel's biggest fiasco to date. While Sony licked its wounds, Madhuri shone her pearlies all the way to her American bank.

Karisma Kapoor may be richer by a few crores after Karishma — The Miracles Of Destiny, but the same cannot be said about the parent channel, Sahara. No wonder television tycoon Ekta Kapoor shies away from signing big-screen stars.

"Big stars want big money. Also, it's a proven fact that stars don't work on television.

That's because they come with larger-than-life images. After watching Shah Rukh Khan play Badshah, no one would want to see him as Mihir in Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi," says Kapoor.

Star's head honcho, Sameer Nair, agrees with Ekta. "Stars are created on television through the characters they play. Smriti Iraani and Amarr Upaddhyay are known as Tulsi and Mihir, even though Amarr gave up playing the character long ago," he says.

Whether a new lot of shows do a turn-around for the channels or not, big-screen stars are likely to get rare on television.

Except, of course, Amitabh Bachchan who is set to return with KBC in June.

Says AB, "We never knew KBC would work in such a big way. It opened up new doors to for me as well as the channel (Star). I don't know why other stars haven't worked on TV."