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Why Indian TV refrains itself from season format
By Kashika Saxena, TNN | Dec 15, 2012, 12.00 AM ISTinShare
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The formats of Kaun Banega Crorepati is copied from foreign show, which is why the show is currently in its sixth season
Seasons may mean different things to different people, but for a TV enthusiast, a new season has little to do with weather and everything to do with their favourite TV characters. 'A new season', however, might not hold much meaning for the Indian TV viewer, at least in terms of fiction shows. So while every reality show that's a rip-off of an American show has seasons, the makers of fiction shows have a perfect antithesis for that - time leaps. Reality shows take breaks and return with quirkier, weirder characters, but fiction shows drag on and on, until nobody knows why they're still on air and then they shut shop.
With American fiction shows like Grey's Anatomy, Sex And The City and F.R.I.E.N.D.S with their multiple reruns across channels doing well in India despite following the season format, we wonder why the step-motherly treatment to Indian fiction shows.
Channels are not in favour of seasons
Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai has recently taken a time leap. Bade Achche Lagte Hain recently took a time leap. And if producer Ekta Kapoor is to be believed, all these time leaps happen because Indian television doesn't do seasons. In an interview to DT earlier this year, she had said, "I am in favour of seasons. I have been fighting for it with every channel, but there are many commercial issues. If the writers don't get the time to write, TRPs fall and you are constantly told to put drama. You need to get freshness back into the show. If you get a six-month break in a season format, the viewer would have also had a break from me, and, for instance, in Bade Achhe Lagte Hain, I would have come back at the same point with much more rigour. But if I can't do that, how do I bring freshness back? So I do this thing called 'time leap', so that I can start afresh. That way I don't have to take a story forward when I know it's ended."
One major collateral damage of time leaps is that sometimes lead actors quit, because they don't want to play fathers to 20-year-olds when they're themselves 25. Another is that the viewer gets pretty pissed about the fact that the mother sometimes looks younger than the daughter, and we all know better than to mess with Women and their age issues.
Samir Soni, who plays Kunal in Parichay that also took a time leap some time back, had said, "I don't feel that viewers will not accept seasons. But it has to be done well. Channels are somewhere not willing to take the risk."
Spin-offs instead of seasons
When Kitani Mohabbat Hai's season 2 was announced, it was hailed as a turning point in the industry. Many thought that we could pull off seasons too. But what came on air was more a spin-off than a new season. Ekta retained the two main characters of the show's first season, and created a new story for them. It bombed.
Chotti Bahu also had a 'season 2', which was again a spin-off, where the protagonists and their names were the same, but the setting and the story was different. The second season ended soon because of low TRPs. Banoo Main Teri Dulhann also had a 'second season', but this time it wasn't even a spin-off, and the viewers got no break from the show either. In the last episode of season one, the two central characters die and in the next episode that was set 21 years later - season two - we were told that they were reborn on the night that they died. Nah, didn't work well either.
The makers of Mahi Way had also claimed that they're doing a second season for their show after the first season ended in 2010, but so far there's been nothing on that front. Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha, which ended in October this year, has promised its viewers that it'll come back with a second season in 2013. We can only hope that it's not a spin-off.
But Reality shows always have seasons
Reality shows, on the other hand, have always had many successful seasons, with their bitchiness and cattiness intact. Roadies is one of the oldest reality shows in India, and has had nine seasons so far. Every other reality show - Sach Ka Saamna, Indian Idol, Bigg Boss, Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa, Kaun Banega Crorepati - that has been copied from a foreign format has never shied away from seasons, and has never given 'loss of TRPs' as a reason for considering that.
With American fiction shows like Grey's Anatomy, Sex And The City and F.R.I.E.N.D.S with their multiple reruns across channels doing well in India despite following the season format, we wonder why the step-motherly treatment to Indian fiction shows.
Channels are not in favour of seasons
Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai has recently taken a time leap. Bade Achche Lagte Hain recently took a time leap. And if producer Ekta Kapoor is to be believed, all these time leaps happen because Indian television doesn't do seasons. In an interview to DT earlier this year, she had said, "I am in favour of seasons. I have been fighting for it with every channel, but there are many commercial issues. If the writers don't get the time to write, TRPs fall and you are constantly told to put drama. You need to get freshness back into the show. If you get a six-month break in a season format, the viewer would have also had a break from me, and, for instance, in Bade Achhe Lagte Hain, I would have come back at the same point with much more rigour. But if I can't do that, how do I bring freshness back? So I do this thing called 'time leap', so that I can start afresh. That way I don't have to take a story forward when I know it's ended."
One major collateral damage of time leaps is that sometimes lead actors quit, because they don't want to play fathers to 20-year-olds when they're themselves 25. Another is that the viewer gets pretty pissed about the fact that the mother sometimes looks younger than the daughter, and we all know better than to mess with Women and their age issues.
Samir Soni, who plays Kunal in Parichay that also took a time leap some time back, had said, "I don't feel that viewers will not accept seasons. But it has to be done well. Channels are somewhere not willing to take the risk."
Spin-offs instead of seasons
When Kitani Mohabbat Hai's season 2 was announced, it was hailed as a turning point in the industry. Many thought that we could pull off seasons too. But what came on air was more a spin-off than a new season. Ekta retained the two main characters of the show's first season, and created a new story for them. It bombed.
Chotti Bahu also had a 'season 2', which was again a spin-off, where the protagonists and their names were the same, but the setting and the story was different. The second season ended soon because of low TRPs. Banoo Main Teri Dulhann also had a 'second season', but this time it wasn't even a spin-off, and the viewers got no break from the show either. In the last episode of season one, the two central characters die and in the next episode that was set 21 years later - season two - we were told that they were reborn on the night that they died. Nah, didn't work well either.
The makers of Mahi Way had also claimed that they're doing a second season for their show after the first season ended in 2010, but so far there's been nothing on that front. Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha, which ended in October this year, has promised its viewers that it'll come back with a second season in 2013. We can only hope that it's not a spin-off.
But Reality shows always have seasons
Reality shows, on the other hand, have always had many successful seasons, with their bitchiness and cattiness intact. Roadies is one of the oldest reality shows in India, and has had nine seasons so far. Every other reality show - Sach Ka Saamna, Indian Idol, Bigg Boss, Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa, Kaun Banega Crorepati - that has been copied from a foreign format has never shied away from seasons, and has never given 'loss of TRPs' as a reason for considering that.
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