Rang Rasiya: Challenges and Opportunities

Rang Rasiya is a success. It has been successful to create a class of viewers who never wanted to watch the status-quo of Indian Televisions Daily Soaps. It has been successful to create an unconditionally bonded married couple who will win everything through the force of their love. They don't need to fall in love again, neither they need to be separated nor suffer memory loss to prove their love - that is too typical and predictable. Another strength of Rang Rasiya is its strong story line which shows the unpredictable things. The class act by leading characters (played by Sanaya and Ashish) gradually overcame the prejudiced fanatics and antagonists that Sanaya should only pair up with Barun (God's sake they are not real life couple!), neither all the skepticism about Ashish whether he can be expressive - all have been proven futile. [It is to be noted that fans should enjoy acting and let their favorite actor to grow up through their acting. Hangover regarding past shows is illogical and counterproductive.] Excellent backdrop and cinematography is also classy for Rang Rasiya. But the most unique thing is it is neither male lead nor female lead centered. It started with the story of Paro and then Rudra entered the scene. The strength of Paro is unprecedented in Indian TV space as an orphan village girl showed her resolute by not compromising to the pressure of marriage; she became receptive to the fact when she collected all the fact about Tejawat showing her pragmatism; she took the bold step to admit and propose to the person who she once hated but then realized this is the person who would provide her the priceless kinship she was so hungry for - the person has protected her under any circumstance; by choosing Rudra and to eventually compel him to marry her she showed her acumen to choose the right person as her life partner; under initial mistrust by Rudra, her unilateral emotion was not shaken - proving her resolute one more time; gradually she proved and transformed Rudra in a human being whose world begins and stops with her. Where have we seen a male lead with so much intelligence and lion-like strength becomes a child in front of his wife (the female lead)? Just because Paro does not have a lot of her relatives roaming around in the set, nor she is a professional, nor she is having enough confrontation in her married life - does not make her less influential woman. The core strength of Rang Rasiya is here - it is a story about a couple whose extraordinary love and bonding will face and win over any struggle. Uniqueness is what defines Rang Rasiya - so irrespective of TRP or what, we should let it run as the way it is running.

Still, is it not flawless - editing is definitely an acute area of improvement.

At the same time, we have to remember Rang Rasiya started against the common tide. Indian Televisions have three categories of viewers: (1) seniors who are fairly conservative - having no dominant senior figures (like a dominant mother-in-law) or absence of rift between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law or such makes Rang Rasiya not appealing to the category 1 viewers. Additionally some have questioned about the less-conservative costumes of the female lead and the raw passion shown in the show. Also, Rang Rasiya is showing a defeated mother-in-law in "kakisa" - don't know why people want to watch dragging of evil and not its defeat. (2) non-teenagers: this category is dominated by married women who want to fancy more women empowerment (no punt). For them having a character like Rudra seems to be unacceptable. Most often they are used to a coy husband but question for them is who has seen such a caring husband like Rudra who can do anything to protect his love? Additionally, in the past Sanaya has enraged a lot by saying she does not like typical "saas-bahu" drama. Truth always hurts! (3) Teenagers: this category is dominated by Sanaya's previous show followers. For them it is unacceptable that she is pairing up and showing intense chemistry with another male actor than Barun Sobti. Even before Rang Rasiya started a lot of questions came up against Ashish and the show. We hope they grow up soon. Next, some candid interviews by Sanaya have led to confusions that she prefers her character as Khushi rather than Paro. Well, any matured actor should always embrace the character they are playing now rather than living in the past. And with all due respect the Khushi character was a pictorial of daily stupidity dominated by a pragmatic male character. No matter how popular the show was, in reality we will end up with a physically exploited secretary from lower-middle class family by the big boss of the corporation. Well, fiction sells and sometimes clouds over fact. Today if we ask: among a cocky businessman, an IIT topper, an angry but good-hearted goon, a star cricketer, a celebrity actor or an army office - who is the most desirable - we all know by our hearts an army officer is not going to score a lot.

Thus, Rang Rasiya started with a lot of baggage but at the end of the day its success is to create a new class of viewers and setting a trend with unpredictable storyline and classy backdrop to depict the unearthly love of a married and matured couple who are not experiencing sexual tension rather always ready for raw unseen passion and always will depend on each other to overcome all their struggles together. Life is not stuck at a certain age, let them grow together so we see through their eyes various stages of life and see the force of their love and passion to prevail over everything.