TOI:No divorces, Hindi soaps bank on second shaadi drama for TRPs

While last minute wedding mandap drama, that includes, bride/groom swapping and cancelled weddings make for predictable tracks, now Hindi GECs have moved into an all-new territory and are dealing with second marriages, even without a formal divorce of the lead couple, making a mockery of the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, simply for some TRP-churning moments!

Sample this: 'Saath Nibhana Saathiya' has a 50-something (already married and not divorced) Dharam (Amar Upadhyay) married to a 20-something Meera (Tanya Sharma), also his daughter-in-law's sister; in 'Jamai Raja' Season 2 Sid (Ravi Dubey) and Roshni (now Ragini (Nia Sharma) are estranged and Ragini is all set to get engaged to Neil (Indraneil Sengupta) even while she's still married to Sid; in 'Yeh Vaada Raha' Kartik (Ankush Arora) marries his obsessesive lover Meher (Ankita Sharma) although he is already married to Survi (Sonal Vengrulekar); in 'Santoshi Maa' Dhairya (Ayaz Ahmed) marries Santoshi (Ratan Rajput) out of revenge and continues to be engaged to his sweetheart Riya (Chandni Bhagwanani); in 'Suhani Si Ek Ladki' Yuvvraj (Sahil Mehta) is separated from wife Suhani (Rajshri Rani Pandey) but is married to Saumya (Neha Yadav); 'Begusarai's upcoming track will see Ananya (Veebha Anand) getting married to five brothers from the same family (like Draupadi); in 'Kaala Teeka' (Simran Pareenja) and Gauri (Fenil Umrigar) both claim to be married to Yug (Rohan Gandotra) and are living with him; in 'Tashan-e-Ishq', Twinkle (Jasmin Bhasin) who is married to Kunj (Siddhant Gupta) gets married to Yuvi (Zain Imam) (by mistake of course); and in 'Sadda Haq', Sanyukta (Harshita Gaur) and Randhir (Param Singh) are married, but happily flirt with other people, completely ignoring their marital status.

ANYTHING FOR TRPSs

What makes makers take a plunge in putting forward so much of over-the-top drama in marriages? Producer Vikas Seth whose show 'Yeh Vaada Raha' has a complicated marriage sequence shares, "TV reflect realities only and there is relatable more dash of drama in TV shows with twists and turns. Audiences love to see their characters marriages break up and reunion. If there is no drama, why will audiences see TV soaps? Marriage sequences and drama also generate TRPs. The wedding twist enables storyline to be explored with variety of shades and texture of relationships. Some shows do show steady marriages too but eventually drama has to happen. Audiences do know they are watching a TV soap and dash of drama is part of soaps."

GOING ON BIZARRE TWISTS

As we spot marriages on small screen going on a farce way - separation of couple, reunion and then they continue to have their conflict of thoughts et al. What do producers think over it? Yash A Patnaik, one of the ace producers whose show 'Sadda Haq' has similar lead couple says, "Every story has a length. At times when a show does well and the characters are accepted and appreciated by the audience makers need to prolong the stories. In most cases the story revolves around the couple and the surrounding characters. Some stories are created with longer arcs while some have smaller arcs. Stories which have longer arcs grow the story organically and others manufacture stories. When one manufactures stories sometimes it takes bizarre turns and need various routes."

ACTORS' SPEAK

What do actors feel about such instability in marriages shown on daily soaps? Actor Chandni Bhagwanani, who plays love interest of already-married protagonist in 'Santoshi Maa' shares, "I accept whatever we see on TV or in movies affect us. I know a few people personally, who subconsciously become afraid of falling in love, getting into a relationship or marriage because of the instability in relationships shown in daily soaps. Movies or daily soaps are a mirror of society like any other art but with added masala. We should keep in mind that daily soaps are meant to provide entertainment and maximum times whatever we see in it is illogical." Even Ravi Dubey, who plays lead in 'Jamai Raja' shares, "In my opinion what keep the audience glued is conflict. Most of the times the conflict is unintentional, the conflict is not deliberately positioned between a couple because they wanted. It's always circumstances. But the fact that there is conflict, you see that against all the couple comes together, there is resurface in relationship. And hence people connect to such an aspect of a relationship very effortlessly. The whole idea fighting through all and coming back together is very inspiring to everybody who watches it. So if Siddharth and Roshni's marriage, whatever response that I have received on social networking platforms is that, they know in the hearts of people this couple is going to reconcile the differences." Complications galore in protagonists' marriages seem to ooze out charm in the daily soaps. So as long as it delivers numbers - GECs and makers will continue to churn out such story of complicated marriages.