10.05.2007

Tulasi Virani as A Teacher


It is very bad to start every blog post with, "I was sitting and thinking and got this idea..."; gives the reader a feeling "Is that what you do for a living?". But what can I do, I really was sitting and thinking when I got this idea.

In India, today, there is a very large viewership for the soaps/serials that they show on TV. From the TRP ratings that these serials command and the kind of advertisement that they garner, I am made to believe that they enjoy high levels of viewership. Common views also tell us that it is the housewives who form a major chunk of the audience for the serials. To give you an indication of the importance that these serials hold for many women, let me give my friend's example. His mother used to ask him to watch the designated serials so that when she returns from work, he will be able to update her on "who was exiled from XYZ Khandaan" or "which bahu was responsible for the poison in the matriarch's soup or pickle or whatever". My point is these soaps are in a very good position to drive home a social message.

I am not saying they should be too bland or too obvious to the point of being boring. I am sure that with the kind of directors and producers at the helm of these projects, it is not an impossible task to dovetail important social messages in these serials. Something as simple "Do not spit on the roads" to "Dowry is a crime", all of these messages can be accommodated.

My friend also suggested that the government could provide incentives to serials which do carry these social messages. We could actually have TV serials competing for such incentives.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Aish…I totally agree with you, instead of these saas-bahu, love-hate sagas…more and more serials that imparts social messages should be shown and promoted.

    However..you would have heard more often producers saying, “hum wahi dikhate hain jo log dekhna pasand karte hain types”…and they would never telecast something that would show their TRP graphs dropping down…, cause its very few of the viewers who may want to interface the realities of life…the rest want spicy dramas to keep them entertained.

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