Who is watching K-serials?(artical)

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Busy with K-serials? (TOI Photo)

Cricketers have been grabbing headlines for the past few weeks with the now famous (or rather infamous) IPL auction.

Much has been spoken and heard over the money being poured into the game. With the men busy
discussing Dhoni and his men's antics Down Under, women are free to click authority over the remote control.

So, as the men hem and haw about the injustice met towards Ishant Sharma, women find time to watch their regular dose of soaps and shed their hourly tears.

Make hay while the sun shines, they say since the fairer sex knows that once the IPL begins, it would be impossible for them to wrench out the remote control from the hands of the men.

Instead of putting up with an argument, they would rather play along and watch the game. So what if there are no designer saris or Tulsis involved? There is always room for high drama with Harbhajan and Symonds ready to whip up a frenzy in the can can version of the game.

A recent study by Starcom India shows that the top TVR (television rating) for a soap has dropped from the mid-20s a few years back to Sub -10 in recent times.

Touted to be the equivalent of the 'male K series', Twenty20 is sure to woo the audience back to the telly. After all, cricket with a 'K' is the new high. If industry sources are to be believed, following the era of Ramayana and Mahabharata, when the streets across India wore a desolate look because people would scurry back home, the next big phenomenon on Indian television will be the IPL Twenty20 matches.

Insiders believe that in many ways, Twenty20 cricket will definitely run on the same lines of high energy drama delivered in quick spurts just like the K serials.

And yes, there will be plenty of ads crammed between overs. Telecast of Twenty20 cricket will have close-ups, quick edits and aggressive vertical and sideways camera movements, especially when the team benches are being focussed on. Music and dance (read item numbers) are also in the offing since we've already seen the skimpily clad cheerleaders dancing beyond the boundary lines and a Bhajji do the bhangra when the Indian team won one of the matches at the Twenty20 World Cup.

If such is the predicted popularity, are our hunks from the small-screen feeling the heat from the rockstars of cricket?

Are they getting insecure since many feel that watching Kolkata team's Shoaib Akhtar bowling to Mumbai's Sachin Tendulkar will be far more absorbing than watching Eklavya and Ansh's face-off in Kyunki... Ask Chetan Hansraj which cricketer could give him competition and he says, "Yuvraj Singh can steal my fans. He is tall and handsome and women find him appealing." Pin-up boy Hiten Tejwani is spoilt for choice and wonders, "There are so many that it's difficult to name just one!"

But the men on the telly, need not panic over the Boys In Blue. All is not lost for the K-serial churners. Considering that most of the IPL matches might just take place on weekends, the TRPs of the weekly shows might not take a beating.

Analysts say the viewership pattern between weekdays and weekends are bound to be different to begin with. "If the viewer misses out on one particular episode, they can catch the repeat telecast," says an industry source.

Accepted, the IPL package is custom-made with an eye on prime-time family viewing and with regional boundaries all set to disappear, viewers will now get to watch more matches without worrying about India's fate. The heat is on and it now remains to be seen what new twists and turns the K company add to their shows to beat competition.