Who is it that makes the girls go hunk- hunk- a baby

Indian television, they said, was meant to be for all those women sitting at home wielding the remote. Where, oh, where then are the neat specimens of the male variety that the female species could have visually feasted on?

Take away the handful muscled physiques and you are left with the wimpy husbands, the adorable obedient sons or the paternally affectionate fathers in law. Hardly material worth writing home about, leave alone dreaming of!

John Stamos aka Uncle Jessie from the '90s sitcom may have got women drooling all over him, and Matt Le Blanc (that's Friends' Joey Tribiani) and Ashley 'Kelso' Kutcher may have their own share of crazy women wanting to do "unspeakable" things to them in the US. But back home, women viewers are flicking channels to determine if what's on display is even worth the trouble of adoration.

Yet, we persevere. By dint of effort and determination, we have rounded up a few of the best bods strutting their stuff on the tube in our prowl for the sexiest hunk on television. These may or may not match up to international standards, but if fan mail is to be believed, some of them are definitely sending female hormones into a tizzy!

To begin with, we safely strike the, well… rather, mature Parmeet Sethis and the dimpled Roy brothers out. Let's take a look at the younger generation of guys spread out across the telly.

How about Rajeev Khandelwal, Kahiin to Hoga's Sujal? Interesting choice, since despite his dark lover act, the female species hasn't quit professing its undying devotion to him, which instantaneously makes him our candidate number one. Besides his dark brooding looks, what helps him is his rakish Mills and Boons hero act. But one hears that the dashing good looks are the handiwork of a rather talented make up man and and efficient camera man. Uh oh. Rajeev better soon ensure that his persona is all his own, if he wants to stay ahead in the hunk race.

Hmmm…. That's the sound women often make when they see cricketer turned actor Salil Ankola. We don't really care about his acting skills, let alone his "sporting abilities", but he is really good looking. Blessed with both chocolate looks and a towering personality… that guy is out to do some serious damage. Not to the fancy dress characters that he tackles in his kiddie comic horror fare Shhh…Koi Hai, naturally.

The next hottie on our chart is Sumeet "Gomzi" Sachdeva. "Looks like another Bollywood Adonis" they said when he joined the Kyunki family. Two years down the line, he is yet to shake off the tag of being the famous screen bahu's son, but we hear he stills makes ladies' pulses race when he knits those pensive brows on the small screen.

Now that we are done with the 'seriously hunk' category, we really don't know where to put the rest of these guys. Welcome the cute brigade that you can safely take home to meet your mom - Hussain K, Hiten Tejwani, Ankur Nayar, Amir Bashir, Vishal Singh, Prabhat Bhattacharjee, Maanav Gohil, Manish Goel, Apoorva Agnihotri and yes, Sanjit Bedi. They might have some serious "hunk" material deep within, but seem to fit more into the "cho chweet category".

Lest we forget, there's a late entrant to this species- Hatim guy Raahil. We don't know much about the physical prowess of this dude, apart from what he puts up in his fantasy show, but boy, we never knew metal suits could make one look so good.

Somewhere between hunk and the mama's boys category is the 'Onurag' fame Cezanne Khan. For starters, his name… it has something rather sensuous about it. But after overdoing that lovelorn puppy act for too long, he seems more like a wimp.

Male actors have a long way to go on the small screen, if they are to match the stature of a Shah Rukh Khan. While the Sweta Keswanis can romp away with item numbers to their credit on the big screen, the poor dudes on television need to acclimatize themselves to the female oriented scripts that Indian TV demands.

So, what is it that can guarantee some extra zeros on the pay cheque? The industry of course, claims that there is no differentiation in payments between the hunks and non hunks. But ahem, popularity and consequently the market value of an actor must surely depend on his ability to keep the girls glued to the screen.

And of this variety, there are a pitiable few. Viewers (read women) are still waiting for those well-proportioned chunks of hunk to ogle at and devour. A lone Rajeev Khandelwal just isn't enough to feed our appetites, or to cater to all female tastes.

The female couch potato awaits some delectable fare. Is anyone offering?