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 Can
anyone guess which is the one most commonly
discussed topic these days, among college students
and womens' kitty parties, letters addressed to
editors in newspapers and at social gatherings?
Criticism of Ekta Kapoor, and her serials all
based on the saas-bahu rivalry within
homes.
But then the story doesn't end here. If Star
Plus has become home to her trend of saas-bahu
sagas, so have Sony and Sahara, to their
respective trends. The only exception here is that
of Zee, which doesn't seem to be following any
particular trend. This is because the only common
phenomenon about all soaps aired on Zee is that
they do not have anything in common.
If one carefully analyses the ongoing trends
visible across TV channels, it becomes very much
evident that there is a common factor binding all
serials telecast on Sony, Sahara and Star Plus. If
at one end, Sony aims at creating star material
out of ordinary characters, at the other end,
Sahara makes use of star material to portray
ordinary television characters. As far as Star
Plus is concerned, it seems as if it hasn't yet
had its share of family dramas.
Now for some real life examples from the 'reel
– world'. Beginning with Sony, look at four of its
prime time soap operas. Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin,
Ayushman, Yeh Meri Life Hain and Kkusum.
All of these serials portray normal, middle-class
persons as their prime characters. Making a star
out of a non-entity definitely does help the
channel witness a rise in the TRP rates.
But too much of anything is bad. Hence,
overdoing this practice will not have the desired
effect and neither will it yield the estimated
results. People may love watching the
girl-next-door type Jassi winning over her
Armaan Sir or maybe an 'aam ladki' like
Kkusum getting married to Prince
Charming Abhay Kapoor.
 But
what about latter entrants, Ayushman or Pooja of
'Yeh Meri Life Hai'? They are exactly
similar types, believing in the same value systems
and belonging to the same category as their
counterparts, Jassi or Kkusum.
Watching every second television character
indulging in the same acts, possessing the same
virtues and behaving in the same manner is bound
to get on audiences' nerves.
Speaking of Sahara, look at the number of film
stars the channel roped in till date to don the
likes of Malini Iyer (Sridevi), Karishma-the
miracles of destiny (Karishma Kapoor) , Sahib
Biwi aur Gulam (Raveena Tandon).etc. The
channel is obviously pushing too far with the
trend of transplanting actors from the golden to
the silver screen? How long can you keep viewers
glued to your channel by giving them an incentive
of watching their favourite film stars on the
small screen?
Now, coming to the universal target, Star Plus,
which hosts maximum number of 'K-shows' has any
viewer ever tried to sit down and analyse the
number of similarities between the different shows
on Star? The daughters in both of its prime time
shows, Shruti and Shobha (Kahani … and
Kyunki…respectively) tied the knots with sons
of their families' arch rivals, Aryan and Vishal.
On-screen couples who could never happily
unite, thanks to Ms Kapoor's genius (Note: if ever
they did unite, scheming mom-in-laws, jealous
ex-flings and possessive siblings more than
ensured that there would be no dearth of problems
in their marital life) Instances: Prerna
and Anurag (Kasauti..)
Rudr and Kesar (Kesar) Sujal and
Kashish (Kahiin to hoga)
There can be no end to these examples as all
these serials are based on the same old
foundation. After a few glimpses, one can easily
predict what will be the outcome of each and every
situation. If ever Ms Kapoor lauds herself on
raising beyond limit issues like infidelity and
marital rape, then she must also expect reactions
for propagating Sita's Agni Pariksha and
Draupadi being thrown open for a bet through her
serials.
 As
a concrete conclusion to the above scenario,
please note the number of innovations Zee brought
in to cater to audiences of all categories, and
not only retain them but attract newer
soap-watchers too.
As a solution to the prime complaint against
soaps of other channels, i.e. that they keep
dragging on endlessly, Zee introduced a concept of
'Chausatth Panne', a soap that will end
within 64 weeks/ 4 months. In this series, Zee
came up with diverse conceptualised story lines
like Dil Na Jaane Kyon, Mansha,etc,
Another innovation came in the form of
beginning their serials at 8:25 instead of 8:30,
so that by the time serials unfold in other
channels,people are already watching Zee serials.
The most recent innovation is the launch of the
'Zee Woman' series in the afternoon sessions. More
than this, if we observe the quality and content
of Zee serials, we find that it does not follow
any particular trend or set of formulae. Just to
get into the details, lets look at five of its
prime time serials: Pancham, Tumhari Disha,
Reth, Tum Bin Jaoon Kahan, and Astitva.
Each of them caters to a different class of
audience and follows varied storylines. Unlike
Star, where anything and everything in terms of
negativity and violence is possible, Zee promotes
positivity through its characters and sets before
the audience good ideals through its artistes.
 Pancham
is the story wherein the prime character is
shown having a strong value system and keeps away
from human emotions like bondage, anger, envy etc
to avert problems in life. Disha is the
story of an adopted girl who sacrifices her
self-respect for the betterment of her foster
family. Reth portrays Jia as a woman who throws
herself in front of people intending to rape her
unmarried S-I-L. Yet she isnt wholeheartedly
accepted by her family (So true of our society!).
Astitva speaks of Dr Simran, who only
listens to her inner voice while deciding among
her priorities. Another highlight for this soap is
the number of social issues it has managed to
encompass in its wake i.e. female foeticide, rape,
prostitution in jails, hormone replacement therapy
for women etc.
Tum Bin has a spiritualistic bent to it
and talks of reincarnation and its harmful
effects.
To add up to the new trends, Zee came up with 'Kareena
Kareena' and 'Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa' to
include an element of humour in its kitty. The
hallmark of Zee's serials is that characters are
portrayed as they are, with an equal amount
of strengths and weaknesses. The characters in
serials telecast on other channels are either
portrayed as paragons of virtue or else icons of
vices. That there could be shades of grey is a
fact never acknowledged by many serial makers.
Thus, merely introducing a trend and blindly
following it until eternity will definitely not
suffice for a channel to keep watchers glued to
its shows. Rather moving with the pulse of the
audience and adopting newer strategies is the way
to retain existing audiences as also pulling in
those fed up of other channels.
Another important responsibility that rests on
the channels' shoulders is that of modifying and
moulding public opinion in favour of changing
times, modernisation of society and preservation
of culture simultaneously.
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