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His character leans towards
the darker side, he is edgy,
mostly a non-conformist and
exudes a raw sex appeal. No, he
neither belongs to some Gothic
novel nor is he the central character of a romantic best-seller.
You will find this tall, 'dark',
edgy hero playing out currently in a television show. Take RK
the arrogant superstar of Madhubala, who hates the heroine
but marries her just to take revenge, Indu Singh of Ruk
Jaana Nahi who plays the rascal with relish, the edgy Kunal
Chopra in Parichay, who is
currently drowning his miseries in alcohol, the rowdy and
rustic Krishna of Pratigya, the
overpossessive and abusive
husband Viraj of Saubhagyavati Bhava and last, but not the
least, Ranveer, the rake of Rab
Se Sonah Isshq, who has
ditched his lover at the altar to
follow his London dreams.
Hemal Thakkar, producer
of Ruk Jaana Nahin says, "Heroes with grey shades give a
very interesting and mystic
feel to the story, women love the
brooding man with secrets and
a little violent streak. I suppose
it started with our Laagi Tujhse Lagan in which Datta
Bhau (he was a gangster) was a
much-loved character. I had
women sending me emails and
messages saying how they
were in love with him."
Vivian Dsena justifies
his flawed personality as
RK in Madhubala
saying heroes are human too. "Being grey is
human. People relate to
my character as they
like realistic characters." That in fact, is the
crux of the story. With
stories becoming
real, the line between protagonist
and antagonist is
blurring.
Says Sukesh
Motwani, head —
fiction programming, head, Zee,
"Television has
come of age with
realistic portrayals
of the protagonists
of our shows. Our hero
is no longer the quintessential good boy, ideal son or
husband nor is the leading lady
a self-sacrificing holier-thanthou damsel-in-distress. Ranveer in Rab Se... deserts the
love of his life on the
wedding day and goes
to London. Saahiba, the girl sells
all the jewellery
set aside by her
parents and
uses the money
to fly to London
in search of
Ranveer. This is the youth of
today and if our protagonists
do not reflect contemporary attitudes, they will fail to strike a
chord with the audience."
Lending credence to this
statement is Amrit Manthan,
which probably is the only serial that has the heroine Amrit
(Adaa Khan) in an ambitious
avatar with no qualms seducing or killing to achieve her
means. Says producer Rajan
Shahi, "Not just the goodness,
people identify with the dark
shades of a character too. Amrit's greed for money and power is something which the
youth relate to."
Not surprising then, that if
good guys are good, bad guys
are better!
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Advocate Anjali Awasthi
