Click to play videoNew Delhi: It's ugly but it's business. Covering crime might rake up controversy but it also brings in the viewers.
Its Thursday, 10 pm, when the Kangar family drops everything to watch Vaardaat, their favorite crime show.
“If there were no crime shows on TV, we would have slept by now,” one of the family member says.
TV ratings agencies say that the Kangars represent the biggest consumers of Hindi crime shows. Ratings released by TAM suggest that these shows are most popular with the lower socio-economic class. And men over 35 are the highest watchers.
But it isn't just Hindi channels. A Scarlette keeling or Arushi Talwar case is now covered with just as much energy in English news channels as well.
CNN-IBN Executive Editor Vinay Tewari says, “It depends on where the crime is taking place. Increasingly it's happening in urban areas, criminals are dentists, architects. This is our target audience. That's why we cover this.”
Suhaib Ilyasi was the anchor of Zee News's hit show India's Most Wanted - a programme that's made him a household name. When he started ten years ago though, Ilyasi struggled to sell his idea.
Ilyasi says, “We went to all the channels - Star Plus, Zee, Sony, DD - it was very difficult for them to believe that crime sells.”
"India's Most Wanted" had a unique selling point - reconstructions of the crimes it covered, and Suhaib's dramatic presentation style.
“I felt I had to have passion, so I spoke loudly. So I meant what I said when I went, together we can make a difference,” Ilyasi added.
Soon, almost every Hindi News Channel had its own crime show, each pushing the `drama quotient' a bit further.
Shams Tahir Khan from Aaj Tak says. “There is a rise in crime and new kinds of crime are happening. What should we do, just shut our eyes?”
Anil Verma publishes India's most popular Hindi crime monthly. His magazine, filled with graphic fictionalized stories of sex and violence, sells over one lakh copies every month.
All our Mythologies and religious stories are essentially crime stories. Look at Ramanyana, there are murders, kidnapping and killing. Same with Mahabharata where brothers are killing brothers.
Drama rules in crime coverage on TV as well. And crime shows have developed their own grammar.
Media critics say techniques like reconstructions make assumptions even as Crime Investigations are in progress and run the risk of distorting facts.
Media Critic Shohini Ghosh said, “Reconstruction of any crime event often in Indian media shows one definitive version of the Crime. But that may not be true since no one is present at the crime scene.”
But news editors say the graphic nature of crime coverage is essential to convey just how brutal a crime can get.
IBN 7 Managing Editor Ashutosh says, “These are innovations in story telling techniques on Television. Music and Reconstruction have nothing wrong, they only help in telling the story in a better way.”
Tabloid newspapers, also heavy on graphic coverage, follow the same logic.
Metro Now Editor Kamlesh Singh said, “We cannot be queasy about crime. Crime is ugly, violence is ugly we have to show what goes on around us. Crime is symptomatic of what all is wrong in our society.”
But audiences could already be tiring of crime coverage. Ratings for Hindi crime shows, have been falling steadily since last summer, and have now hit an 18-month low.
Media e2e CEO Atul Phadnis says, “There are already signs that viewers are opting out of this form of crime coverage. The ratings might have been at the peak in 2004-2005 but today they have slipped down.”
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