By Ishqbaaaz Fan @Goldie85136726
Ishqbaaaz fans have had a rough ride these past couple of weeks. Thanks to Amrita and Eman's article published on the website www.feminisminindia.com some serious question have been raised on the behavior of both the channel and production house. Larger issues of job insecurity and skewed power relations between the actors/ crew on the one hand and production house/ channel on the other have also had lights shined upon.
However as a regular viewer who invested hours and hard earned tax paid money on the subscription to watch the show, I have more questions and concern.
The story so far we have been able to piece though brushing away hearsay and rumor mongering is as follows. Some time in November, Star Plus expresses serious concerns about the declining viewership of Ishbqbaaaz. They overlooked a history of seasonal viewership dip during festivals. A knee jerk reaction of a narrative leap was put forward. While most of the cast were fired and were serving their notice period very much under the public radar, rumor, or perhaps tactical leaks emerged about the much loved female lead leaving the show because she refused the role of an onscreen mother. Eventually it turned out that the leap was planned with just one of the male leads. For one, firing is a part of any business in pursuit of efficiency and TV shows are businesses at the end of the day. But the problem here is we as general viewers are stakeholders in making the show a success it was and we demand answers.
First, if the channel was seriously concerned about declining viewership, as a business what should they be doing? Should they not subject their finished product to quality checks before they put it out there? In terms of a TV show, should the channel not be watching the show on TV not just monitor the script/ storyline as pitched by the production house/ or other material on the drawing board. It is doubtful that the channel was doing anything on those lines. Because to loyal and regular viewers, the declining quality of writing, weak, irrelevant and down right boring plots were very apparent. Such viewers have been vocal on social media too. In today's age of hyper connectivity social media amplifies word of mouth. Such negative feedback from vocal viewers must have contributed to declining viewership. Any responsible business would immediately respond to negative feedback. For instance Netflix decided to bring back sitcom FRIENDS for a staggering $100 million per annum because of public demand. But Starplus never addressed viewer dissatisfaction. Had they watched the show as it was aired, they would have realised the potential the show had. They would have also noticed slips, tracks that were either abandoned or abruptly ended-jerky narrative essentially. (Like what happened to Priyanka Ranveer, Mahi, Kamini, Sultan)
Secondly, producer of the show decided to ignore the feedback from loyal viewers and pursue the least creative storyline of leap. This despite the fact that viewers are of the opinion that the strings on the current narrative is still hanging in mid air. There is no sense of closure here and the past week the episodes are being manufactured in a rush to end the first season while trying to be a credible and acceptable springboard to the second season. As regular viewers we can see that these efforts are hasty, thoughtless and in the process dissipating the feel good' factor associated with the show. Ishqbaaaz was much loved for its unconventional characters, positivity, all-is-well kind of warm feel good factor. All of it is now being ruined in the name of the
leap. Strangely the producer and channel seems to be pushing the Leap down viewer's throat despite bitter opposition. Why would any business make a product which no one wants?
Third, the economics of it. Ishqbaaaz as a show appealed to modern urban sensibilities. We do not know the weightage given to such demographics in the BARC sample. We do know that the sample is very small compared to the large Tv viewing population of India. Assuming that quality of the sample is good and collection methodology robust, we will still see that Ishqbaaaz has maintained steady viewership, which would spike during strong tracks. That means the demand is know, now the cost need to be adjusted in order to be profitable. Cost and budgeting is the responsibility of the production house and channel. If they failed in their responsibility why should the viewers bear the brunt? They could work on a tighter script, plan for shooting on fewer days, save production costs while maintaining narrative integrity, For instance, the very popular show Zindagi Gulzar Hai' was perhaps made at a faction of ishqbaaaz's budget, perhaps had a smaller viewership but still made economic sense. But that show is still remembered for its strong, crisp script, narrative integrity and a definitive conclusion. If the economics still does not work, why cannot Ishqbaaaz end with the definitive conclusion while maintaining narrative integrity? That they want to make a second season of ishqbaaaz implies that they want to cash on the legacy and good will the show has managed to build over these years. Unfortunately, the blame game is on and channel and production house's inefficiencies are now being packaged as blames on viewer for not tuning in and cast for not delivering, both of which are unreasonable.
Lastly, it is the channels behavior. They did not work on the show when viewers were complaining. Now they are not considering the bitter viewer opposition to the show taking a narrative leap. They are ignoring emails, twitter trends and rarely pick up calls from concerned viewers. That's bad customer service to begin with. Sadly it looks like they are indulging in other tactics to divert the attention of the restive viewers. This is no way to handle customer relationship in today's world. Also, as a business who claims to be the torch bearer of modern thinking', piggybacks on gender equality campaigns should dismiss viewers mostly female as being hormonal teenagers' is absolutely worrisome. Also unfortunate is that an industry where women run powerful production houses, and women constitute a disproportionately large part of the viewership, has the least respect towards female characters, artist and viewers. Starplus has managed to alienate loyal viewers because of all these hasty and ill thought out moves.
Another problematic behavior on the part of the channel is their lack of transparency and dishonesty. Though they were aware of the viewer dissatisfaction, they did not face viewers directly, but chose to manipulate the cast and viewers with farewell videos, lip-service social media posts. Businesses that mean well, maintain honest relationship with their customers not try subversive tactics like in this fiasco.
At the cost of sounding repetitive, viewers who have long been loyal to the show do not want a leap. They just want a definitive conclusion. Ishqbaaaz despite its great run and all good things that came to Indian TV world, will be remembered for the way it ended, the bitter destruction of
the narrative and everything the show stood for. Thus the good will earned over two and half years lies squandered in a dessert of viewer dissatisfaction.
Anupamaa
Cricket
