TOI: Remarriage the new TRP gimmick-Byah

Saas-bahu khitpits and family feuds are slowly becoming passe as certain serials, aired on the prime time, are embracing a new concept — in-laws getting their bahus married off even though their sons are alive! Sounds shocking? Channel heads dig the idea saying that the boring concept of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law being at loggerheads has been done to death.

Says Sukesh Motwani, head of fiction programming of a channel that first aired this concept in Punarvivaah, "It made a powerful statement. Viewers from all over wrote in saying that they were inspired by the concept and were more sensitized towards their own daughters-in-law. The idea worked because people were dying to see Solidarity between the twoWomen of a household." Other soaps followed suit, turning the idea into a formula. The pulse of the audience had been felt and captured.

That Byaah Hamari Bahoo Ka is based on the concept is revealed by the name of the show itself. JD Majethia, who produces the show, says, "If a boy makes a mistake, will his parents just support their son or will they also think about their daughter-in-law? We explored this in the serial." Popular Marathi actor Pratiksha Lonkar, who plays the saas in the serial, says, "We have to get out of being a saas and take decisions as a rational human being. Getting Rajnibala (the daughter-in-law in the serial) married was the best thing we could do, so we did."
Such concepts inspire and help change the mindsets of the viewers, feel soapmakers. Prashaant Bhatt, the weekday programming head of Colors, says, "TRP is the last thing that we want. We are trying to create awareness that the girl you have brought in to your house as your daughter-in-law is also someone's daughter. Her happiness and future should be of prime importance to you. In Balika Vadhu, Anandi has spent 90% of her life fulfiling her duties as the bahu. After her divorce, her in-laws want her to find a good life partner as a parent will want for their daughter. In real life too, when a man betrays his wife and marries another woman, it will be extremely selfish of the family to just keep her and not think of her happiness."
Chloe Ferns, the creative head of Kya Hua Tera Vaada, which is also toeing the same line, says, "In this serial, there is this woman with three kids whose husband deserted her after cheating on her. So the in-laws, who love her like her parents, tell her not to waste her life, and get married to a guy who loves her and is ready to accept her with her kids. The show caters to an urban audience. We are not trying to propel remarriage or tell a married woman to leave her husband."
Apra Mehta, who plays the mother-in-law in the serial, says, "People take soaps very seriously. It becomes our moral duty to show what is right."Apra had essayed a somewhat similar character in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, where she tried to get her daughter-in-law, Tulsi, married when her husband, Mihir, was thought to be dead..