Click to play videoNew Delhi: Sari-clad Indian woman worshiping husbands and raving about family values is a scenario that’s rarely seen now-a-days in real households. But on the Indian idiot box, it’s the one and only theme that sets the TRPs of soap operas soaring.
Popular Indian soaps are pegged on family drama and are dominated by woman characters that are traditionally Indian and very stereotyped.
Does Indian soaps then promote stereotypical Indian woman who has no life beyond four walls of her home? Sagarika Ghosh debates that on CNN-IBN India 360 with Smriti Irani—popular Indian tele actor who’s known for playing cult character Tulsi, Mandira Bedi—TV host and Madhu Kishwar—Professor, CSDS.
Do Indian soaps promote gender stereotypes?
The pulse of the Indian soap opera Tulsi—the popular character in Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi dies. She's the virtuous devoted wife who never deviated from her uniform of sindoor and mangalsutra. Smriti though in real life is much different than what she’s portrayed on screen. The popular TV icon owns a production house that’s all set to dole out serials in competition against Ekta Kappor’s Balaji Telefilms, the one that gave break to Smriti as an actor.
Does Smriti agree that Tulsi embodied backward values? She gives a diplomatic answer.
“I have always told people, if you want to look up to someone, go around looking someone in your own family or amongst women in the society who are far more ideal than Tulsi. The K series that I am a part of is just an imagination, which shows a fictitious family. Women in modern India live under much difficult circumstances and achieve more than the women protagonist that we show on TV,” she says.
Balaji is the biggest television production house in India and its formula for success is nothing but the traditional Indian woman. Popular TV host Mandira Bedia who has also been a part of K-series says K-serials are dangerous because they actually promote the unquestionable slavery to man.
“I’ve been a part of Kyunki… and I think a lot of TV serials that are made today from the K camp or otherwise, show woman either as a sex object or as the stereotyped homemaker. I don’t see a third definition. And that’s how its been for the past 5-6 years,” she said.
Mandira who acted in tele serials before becoming a cricket commentator played another cult character long back in a UTV serial called Shanti. She can’t stop raving about Shanti for that introduced the headstrong career-oriented women that the Indian society idealizes.
“I could identify a lot with Shanti the popular character that I played long back on tele screens. She was an inspirational character, a career minded, head strong woman—the kind of person you would want to be like. A lot of her rubbed off on me actually. But I can’t see a similar character now on the tele screens. Reason why I quit the Kyunki…I simply could not relate to it at all,” she said.
Whose Ghar ki Kahani is it anyways?
TV serials portray a fantasy world. Where else do you see women who even sleep with the lip-gloss and heavy jewellery on? Is it dangerous for young women to see the conniving deceptive characters glorified on tele screens that almost seem to suggest—that’s the way to live.
“Not only the K serials but also Bollywood, MTV and mass media by and large is constantly telling people, how you look and what you wear matters much more than who you are,” said Madhu Kishwar—Professor, CSDS.
Kishwar says it’s not the Tulsi-type character that worries. “It’s rather these very evil women characters that I never imagined existed on our planet,” she added.
Do such women exist in real life that can manipulate to the extent of plotting a murder? Where is the idea coming from? Is it the women in the making or is it the kind of women Ekta Kapoor sees in the top elite layers of society?
“If that’s the kind of women Ms Kapoor sees in elite society, I would say the society is in eminent danger. These women she portrays are no homemakers. They wear traditional clothes, look homely, but are plotting, killing, murdering and forever conspiring against each other. And they are not even loyal to their supposed husbands. They are shown destroying just everybody else’s family and their own too,” says Madhu Kishwar.
Another point is why do a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law have to be on collision cores to make the serial run? Why can’t they be shown as individuals who live normally in the same family while the interesting turn of event happens outside the household periphery? Why must two women pit against each other to make a sensational story?
“Let’s reflect on the fact that television is not just an instrument of social change, but an instrument to make money at the end of the day. It runs on the number game of TRPs. For the production house doling out the K-serials, it’s more about the money than about the society,” says Smriti Irani.
It’s all about money, honey!
Many have tagged K soaps as stereotypical and even regressive, but the fact remains that Ekta Kapoor's soap factory is a force to reckon with.
Even as many mourn the loss of original Tulsi, Ekta Kapoor's soap factory continues to maintain a monopoly of sorts in the entertainment space. It's not just Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi that boasts of all the action—most K serials rely on key ingredients of extra marital affairs, amnesia, death of characters and their subsequent miraculous comebacks.
The recipe seems to be working for the Balaji Telefilms.
“Soaps and characters do become a part of viewers lives. For a while that I played a negative character in Kyunki and trust me people started believing that I am a negative person. They even forgot Shanti and woman crusader that I played earlier. People actually would come up and ask me my cant I leave Mihir alone for god’s sake,” said Mandira Bedi.
Ekta Kapoor's productions are aired in over 8 countries including New Zealand and Afghanistan. One of the longest running shows on the Indian television, Kyunkii made a mark by maintaining double digit TRPs for over 5 years in succession. The soap factory boasts of 44 past productions and has currently 9 serials on air in India. In fact, as per April 2006 ratings, of the top 25 shows on television, 24 were from the Balaji camp.
Ekta Kapoor's K serials changed the face of prime time television with their twisted plots and all things Indian, from superstitions to traditions... Though some might feel that the characters were based more on stereotyes than real life.
The TRPs reflect something else, as of March this year, Kyunkii attracted highest TRPs for the channel.
What serials portray is certainly an imaginary world. People aspire to see women in a joint family with perfect incomes flowing in, rich lifestyle and all the time in the world to pit against each other. The world, most soaps portrays is certainly not a real world.
“It may not be a fantasy world but a doled up world. Today I think over the world, anxiety about survival of a family is becoming a universal phenomenon. In India we are deep rooted in the kinship networks. And the progressive breakdown of those networks as well as the joint families with divorce rates going up has given way to anxiety, which is perhaps why people are glued on to the television,” concluded Madhu Kishwar.
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