Gosh that was spot on Mary! Very balanced writing! Well done!
I want to add something to your valuable letter, from a business perspective.
What I am saying might seem irrelevant / comparison / bashing to some people. But I am not bashing for sure. If I am compairing, it's for a good reason, and I strongly claim that it will be far from irrelevant.
1. 8 pm India Time is the time that IPL matches started, about 2 months back. That's why it was obvious that the serials that fell in that time slot were going to suffer the most. There were some days when there were 2 IPL matches, that matches began at 4 pm and 8 pm. On those days other serials which fell into the early evening slot too had to suffer in terms of TRP's. But All in all, the serialin the 8 -10 pm slot had IPL hovering over them for whole of 2 months, everyday! And the IPKKND team was aware of it.
2. Barun signing a movie became public knowledge (rumour format) about a month ago. At least 2-3 weeks before that he must have announced it with PH and they must have had a set back around the same time that IPL started.
Thanks to teh above two adversities falling upon them almost simultaneously and as a result, IPKKND team somehow went on a defensive.
I am sure you people must be remembering that Star Plus released a combined Promo for their leading serials just before IPL started. It was supposed to give a spoiler about events occuring on SP during IPL period. There was SNS, IPKKND, EHMMBH, MKAP involved in that promo.
-SNS had released a promo of The Male Lead's (Ahem) ex GF Anita returning into his life.
-EHMMBH had released a promo that the the elder sister of the two female LEADS- Jeevika neede blood and her sister refuses to donate because she had Leukemia. This revealation was most awaited by the fans and the PH announced it in their prom o, well before IPL.
-MAKP announced the parda fash of the villians in the family and the return to glory of the leads.
-IPKKND released a promo where Khushi decides that she'll make Arnav drive her out of the house.
To my understanding, IPKKND was the weakest Promo of the 4. In fact was it a promo even? the scene that they showed as promo, had ALREADY been aired!!! If we go back in time, in the light of the facts that we now know about, POSSIBILITIES of Barun quitting for a movie, Sanaya quitting fo a reality show, Daljeet quitting for her own reasons., and IPL domination of TRPs must have haunted the PH about two months back. Everybody must have gone numb and must have wanted to be risk free, hence they went on a defensive and did not bring out much during last two months.
If we compare this to EHMMBH, they went aggressive and it paid off in terms of TRPs and fan appreciation. They paced things up with the lives of the leads. They did away with the most hated relationship of the show. They started with the long awaited Lovestory of the younger pair of leads. They started with revealation track of Maanavi's cancer. They started exploring new nuances of the CORE relationships of the show. And it paid off. In their aggression they too made some mistakes and unintensionally some loopholes remained. But they had their basic idea right which helped them GROW, not just survive through IPL.
I have always believed one thing about SNS's success in TRPs. Believe it or not, their success was more a result of their time slot than their storyline. I mean, just think from this point of view. In India, a great lot of working ladies happen to come home from offices by 6:30 7:00 pm. So before they get back to house work and dinner preparations, they get this half an hour or so to chill with a cup of tea. And that's the time that SNS airs and is a typical women audience targetted program. And hence it is preferred to be watched by many. Of course, had been a crap, people would have not watched for over 2 years. Hate marriages and sweet characters sit well with viewers. Well, personally I like SNS too. Their stories move in real life speed, but with surreal concepts! Personal opinions apart, but even this slow moving soap went ahead with a very inviting track during this period.
MKAP too did well with the pace and win win situations for the leads.
But due to the reasons discussed above, IPKKND team got disoriented and hence the lack of continuity and intensity and sensible comedy, IMO. I am an ardent fan of IPKKND and never would dream of quitting the show. I am not even disapponted too much with the CV's and the team, becauuse I sypathised with them and hoped that they will get better. Of course with Bad rumours clearing and IPL about to end and having to come to senses, they have tried well to come up with the truth revealation and ILU tracks but Bubbly track was a failure. All in all, I think the internal setbacks and IPL had an adverse effest on our serial.
There. All done. Did I even make sense? I think I did. Rest is for all to think and criticise...
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