The Indian Television is routinely criticized by several people for its lack of imaginative and original television content.
Several months ago, I read a very well-researched article, on the Quint, if my memory serves me right, explaining how the saas-bahu soaps have a much wider appeal to the rural audience and the women in the middle-class families, and how most of the money earned by the production houses financing these serials, actually comes from precisely this section of the Indian society.
Therefore, if there is a primary point we need to understand, it is that because the rural people now have access to television and can contribute to so much of the profits earned by these production houses, it is precisely these kinds of serials that would be the norm for Indian television.
For the young generation, we have digital platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and even the senior generation in the highly urban households do not really consume the hilarity that may be shown on the Indian television. The kind of content that is available on the digital platforms, is far more profound and intellectually challenging than the kind of bizarre things TV soaps churn out. The likes of us, who belong to the young generation, cannot even bring ourselves to call it “content”. To most of the actual content creators, the word “content” being applied to saas-bahu would definitely feel like an insult to their own work.
Let’s take the Amazon Prime Original series Inside Edge as an example. This is, in fact, the ultimate example of why such content is usually not made on TV. The web series, as we all know, is about the “game behind the game”; an insight into the world of betting. The nigh-perfect direction, casting, cinematography and the profound content it exposes us to, is not that comprehensible for someone belonging to the rural community.
This does not imply that the guy in the rural area has any less of an intellect than the guy brought up in an urban household. However, the kind of environment that a villager may be in, is not that intellectually profound, so to speak. How many rural people have opportunities to interact with foreigners? Urban households generally comprise of businessmen or other employees working in the corporate world who have almost day-to-day engagement with foreign clients/customers/associates or whoever. Thus, these people have a broader outlook towards life, have had an opportunity to broaden their intellectual horizon and therefore, their entertainment tastes are more inclined towards content that challenges them intellectually.
The example I gave above was on the lives of people in the corporate world, who are exposed to the norms of globalism. The same also applies to, say, the world of geopolitics. Can we really expect a rural person to comprehend the intricacies of international relations?
If a TV channel were to produce a series showing the state of affairs, between India and another country, on the verge of jeopardy, thanks to nefarious terrorist activities that potentially implicate the other country directly, would a rural person really comprehend that? It is not possible.
It is just like expecting someone living in the 1950s to understand how R&AW functions today. It’s not possible for him to understand it all immediately because he has not been previously exposed to such concepts.
Rural households have to, usually, concern themselves with basic needs of life. Almost every rural person would like to lead a prosperous life with a happy family. So, TV soaps, which are aimed at entertaining them, largely consist of stories involving a rich North Indian household, and the family equations in that household. The same patterns recur over and over again: some happy little (read ginormous) family, the lives of whose members, are constantly meddled into by that disturbing relative, frankly with ridiculous plots at times.
However, all of this is pretty simplistic in nature, and slow-paced. At one point of time, a ten-year-old could easily predict the story that would form the crux of the next month of episodes.
Considering that the rural households, and even the middle-class women in general, do not have access or even the time to surf through the web to hunt for good web series, the TV channels fulfill their entertainment needs by mass-producing episodes. It is no secret that Indian daily soaps can run into thousands of episodes, often leading to a reduction in the quality of the overall plot. Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah, for example, has crossed 2,800 episodes!
The web series we are fond of usually consist of 8–9 episodes per season. The content is profound, the cinematography is world-class and the plot well-paced. We connect with it, and considering that urban households value content over entertainment of any sort, they are also ready to wait for a long time until their series gets renewed and a second season is out to be binge-watched.
I repeat, this is not to say we possess a superior intellect. It is just that the rural guy has not been exposed to international intricacies or plots with a deeper meaning behind them. Once they become part of the mainstream, there is no doubt about their ability to understand deep plots and overall good content as well.
Secondly, I don’t know how true this is, but I was once watching an SnG roast of Indian TV serials, and Karan Talwar made an important point.
He said that the influence of these TV serials, wherein lives revolve around the typical “superhuman” appearing women, actually has been positive in rural areas. More families started to send their girls to school. So, in a sense, there has been an improvement in the quality of life of rural girls. They’ve also started gaining access to education.
Now, assuming that this is largely restricted to just a few areas, it shows an impact nonetheless. Therefore, it is not necessarily a negative idea to have these soaps running on television.
Let the concerned people enjoy the daily soaps. We can enjoy the content on the web.