#HappyDussehra: 10 Evil Things On Indian Television That Need To Be Burnt Right Away

Today, the 10th day of Navratri, marks Dussehra, where we remember the end of Ramleela and Lord Rama's victory over the evil Raavana.

This day holds a lot of significance in Indian ethos, and hence is celebrated with all vigour. While good and evil are both present in every aspect of our lives, the Indian Television industry is no exception. And we at India-Forums thought we'd list down 10 evil things that are happening on Indian TV and should be put to an end right away.

Read as we list them down for you!

The portrayal of women on Indian TV is quite stereotyped and typical for an audience that is slowly moving to accept more of progressive content. Shows still showing a girl putting up with all the drama from her mother in law, or how a girl would always give up on her own wishes in order to cater to her husband's, is something that has been glorified on TV time and again. 

Not to forget, even in the 21st century, independent women remain a myth. If we manage to find some on Indian TV, we will also have to accept the 9 yards of saree wrapped around her. The only time we see a woman go glam and fab is when she turns into a vamp. That needs to stop.

Quite in sync with the first point, while it is no doubt that women are stereotyped and yet remain the key characters in almost every daily soap, it is also no hidden fact that men are often used as mere props with very minimal or no stand of their own at all, and nothing much to do. Even a show like Ishqbaaaz that started off with a sole concept of showing the bromance of the three Oberoi brothers has now gone the 'Indianized' soap way.

There is a lot that has happened and progressed as well, but certain things have gone up the graph but only to make it all the more worse. It started with Maan Singh Khurrana aka Gurmeet Choudhary in Geet Hui Sabse Parayi, when the viewers fell in love with his character which was supposed to be angry and arrogant. However, what also came along was the immense love and all the worship that he received, and it continues even today in the form of Raman (Karan Patel), Advay (Barun Sobti) and others being loved for being the angry young men.

A reality show should be kept just that, all reality. Manipulating the votes, or pre-scripting the entire show isn't what we want to see. While such rigging and manipulating is often spared when the contestants are commoners, when celebrity reality shows are concerned, there is always a flaw involved. 

There was a point of time when almost every single TV show was showing the kidnapping drama and how the hero turns his ladylove's saviour. And of course, if repetitive tracks aren't enough, then there are shows like Kumkum Bhagya, that resort to the same track in different ways. We wouldn't be surprised if there's an accident again followed by a loss of memory and of course, marriage.

Both marriage and motherhood are two of the most sacred relationships that we humans have, to cherish. The Indian TV on the other hand pays no heed to those ethos and has time and again made a mockery out of it. Abortions and multiple marriages on various shows is nothing but a game for them.

This has been a major issue these days, given how the children are being used for TRPs and are being exploited to a whole new level all together. A child working in any daily soap is being introduced to things and situations that he/she probably might face sometime in the future, but, the treatment that they are given on TV makes the entire scenario worse. 

There is no doubt that there is always scope for fictionalization in any story, but doing that to a historic or a mythological one is something that does need a lot of care and the intricacies have to be kept in mind. In the first week of this month, we came across one of the instances in Star Plus' Chandra Nandini where accidentally, the mehendi on the bride's palm is imprinted on another girl's palm just about perfectly with the initials of the former's husband. While this makes just no sense at all, what irks us all the more is using it as an element to add drama in a show of historic significance.

If I had to divide the shows currently running on Indian TV into different genres, it wouldn't take a lot of my time because of the very few exceptions we have. Doing something that one is good at is a different thing, while doing something that everyone is doing is naive. It was once the trend of supernatural thrillers that had taken a front seat, but with time that faded away.

Currently it is all the mythos and historical shows that are the forerunners. The herd mentality is so strong that two shows, with a same name, (Prem Ya Paheli - Chandrakanta and Ek Mayavi Premgata Chandrakanta) aired on two different channels. While there isn't much that can be done because the content driven stories fail to make an impact, we can only hope that things change for better.

This is one major problem that we think Indian TV industry faces. On one hand the viewers as well as the makers talk about good, meaningful, content driven shows while on the other, the makers look out for TRPs and the viewers for drama. Most of the shows start off on a totally different pretext and over time, go somewhere totally different. Talk about Sasural Simar Ka or Ishqbaaaz, no comparisons drawn, but while the former wanted to talk about the life of two sisters but later turned into some supernatural drama, the latter wanted to showcase the camaraderie and the bond between three brothers but turned into a love saga. Oh and of course, how can we miss Udaan, Uttaran, Naamkarann - they created a total blunder out of their storylines.

Though purely entertainment, what we see everyday does have a lot of effect on our brains. And, these things do need a full stop at the soonest possible moment in order to make content progressive for both us and the industry.