The Sob Story
Everybody cries. Anchor (Shaan and Shilpa Saklani win hands down on that) and audience, judges (Saroj Khan, Malaika Arora Khan, Daler Mehndi, Bappi Lahiri, Abhijeet, Pooja Bhatt) and participants, ba and bahu. From soaps to reality shows, it pays to cry on television. Time was when Kapil Dev breaking down on Karan Thapar's talk show turned around opinion on match-fixing. These day's Shilpa Shetty's tears is subject of international relations. Rakesh Sharma, the long locks son-of-the-soil singer from Chhattisgarh of Fame X fame, is king of the gland war. First, he flummoxed everyone with his tearful overflow when he landed in the danger zone. Then the camera panned reactions of a moist-eyed anchor Shilpa Saklani, the numbed judges Daler Mehndi and Ganesh Hegde, sniffing fellow contestants, and a stunned audience. Sharma continued to sob heartrendingly, standing, crawling and rolling on the stage. But of course, he survived the eviction. For the producers, it made great promo content, says a member of the show's PR cell, adding, "that was the first time even the strict Dalerji cried on the show". The women's team on this count is led by actress Rupali Ganguly, especially after her non-stop sob act in Bigg Boss. Her competition, Shweta Tiwari, the 'iron-matriarch' Prerna of Kasautii Zindagi Kay who could have won 'Most Emotional Contestant' if there had been such a category in the celeb dance show Nach Baliye 2. She was praised, she cried. She was criticised, she cried. A family member decided to drop in for an episode, she cried. The organisers got her and hubby Raja Chaudhury back on a wild card entry when fellow couples voted her out. Then, there's Zee TV's Saat Phere Saloni Ka Safar, (aptly called 'Saloni ka Suffer') and new entrants, Banoo Main Teri Dulhann (revolving around an illiterate girl married to a retarded husband) and Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyaan (four daughters in a crazy-for-a-son family) and you've come the whole range for tears for every reason. And that's just a random sampling of tear flow across three hours of daily primetime viewing (8-11 pm). The latest, and most surprising entry, of course, is Rakhi Sawant. From insults to drama to melodrama, that's a climatic jump. Sony's creative head Sandip Sikand says: "Emotions do touch a viewer's heart. Indians are overtly emotional people and these scenes help make a connect." Kavita Barjatya of Rajshri Productions, and the producer of Sahara One's leading tear-jerker Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki agrees. "A tearful father-daughter scene, mushy couple scenes, saas-bahu nok-jhonks and the likes kindle memories of similar associations and events of their own in the audience's mind and makes them emotional," says Kavita. The TRPs of Woh Rehne…, which has had seven shaadis so far, "picked up only after the introduction of its lead bahu Pari's fresh bout of sufferings," she admits. Then of course, there's Solah Singaarr, a painful compilation of the tragedies of a beautiful widow in conservative Banaras and Zaara Pyaar Ki Saugaat, with sisters Zeenat and Zaara bemoaning their marriage to the same guy. "Audience surveys show that both before and after the launch of a show, tears and sob stories sell the most. The audience likes to see protagonists in pain and derives satisfaction that others too are suffering like them," says Sahara One's programming head, Kalyan Sundaram. "Don't strugglers and underdogs make great stories?" Sahara One is not alone. Balaji Telefilms is still high on glycerine. Pallavi Subhash, lead actress of its latest offering Karam Apna Apna (Star Plus), is exasperated. "Everyone keeps asking me why I cry so much. But I guess my sufferings are working to the serial's benefit." Of course, Balaji and the satellite world's leader soap saga Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhie Bahu Thi still rules the charts, thanks to the nation's favourite bahu Tulsi's never ending woes. "Though crying comes to me spontaneously now, it's also quite a strenuous act. We rarely see men cry in real life, so when it happens, it really touches the audience," lets on Hiten Tejwani, who has made a class act of the crying game in his lead male track of Karan in Kyunkii…. "High TRPs for sob stories in the primetime band is perhaps because men generally get the remote only after 11 pm," reasons Rakeshh Paaul, who in spite of doing nearly 25-plus acts in The Comedy Show Ha Ha Ha says his few and far between dramatic episodes in Kyunkii… and Bhabhi got more attention. "India is a very emotional country; just see the way in which sympathy waves work in every sphere of life here." Rajesh Kamat, head of the Indian division of Endemol, creator of popular reality show formats across the globe like Big Brother, says, "I don't deny that some of the tearful outbursts on reality TV are created by participants, the rationale being that if I reveal a weak spot the audience will vote for me and there are people who fall for it too."
Okay, so we know that Indians are a melodramatic lot, but aren't we going into glycerine over-drive here? Not unless there's a method to the madness: most of these sob sagas happen to be the driver soaps of their respective channels — Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki (Sahara One; TRP 2-3), Bigg Boss (Sony; TRP 2-3), Saat Phere (Zee TV; TRP 3-4) and Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhie Bahu Thi (Star Plus; TRP 8-9).
http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=14997
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