How secular is Indian television?

441597 thumbnail
Posted: 7 years ago
#1
Doesn't one feel that there is very less representation of other faiths (the likes of Qubool Hai and Ishq Subhan Allah are recent phenomenon). before that, other Muslim-themed socials were very obscure and not that popular.
And while Muslims still have a somewhat visible presence, other smaller communities like Christians, Sikhs and Jains don't have any representation.

Aside from representation, why doesn't Indian TV show the guts to show inter-faith marriages? Can they show and Hindu boy marrying a Muslim girl or vice-versa? Is it too much to ask for in today's day and age?
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Let's have a fair and frank discussion on this point.

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Ardhanarishwara thumbnail
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Posted: 7 years ago
#2
Indian television is regressive except for some youth shows...itv se kuch expect karna hi bekar hai..All thanks to the audience, no content oriented show gets trps and thus ends up getting scrapped.
Yesterday I started watching a show on StarPlus "Mariam Khan reporting live"..I started watching because an actress who I like was playing the grown up female lead (Maryam) after leap.
But when I watched the show I was really happy to see the religious harmony they portrayed.
The Muslim girl Maryam is brought up by a Sikh woman as her own daughter..The girl is following both religions...and in flash back she was shown taking part in some Hindu festival.
In Bepannaah also the FLs first and 2nd marriages,both are inter religious.
Isn't Jodha-Akbar an inter faith marriage.
Then there is Salim-Anarkali and other Mugal oriented stories which represents Muslim population..There were a number of soaps on Punjabi familys as well..
Padfoot_Prongs thumbnail
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Posted: 7 years ago
#3
It's not about religion per se. It's about lack of creativity among the writers. They write different content for first few months than it is always same. They simply cant write different stories for a lengthy period.
Even if the serial is about muslims, they will show them dancing on a songs on Holi. I am not saying that they should not be shown celebrating Holi. But they go overboard for every festivals.


Now they are very comfortable writing same thing again and again,still getting gud TRPs, so why shud they experiment?
VintageWine thumbnail
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Posted: 7 years ago
#4

Originally posted by: Padfoot_Prongs

It's not about religion per se. It's about lack of creativity among the writers. They write different content for first few months than it is always same. They simply cant write different stories for a lengthy period.

Even if the serial is about muslims, they will show them dancing on a songs on Holi. I am not saying that they should not be shown celebrating Holi. But they go overboard for every festivals.


Now they are very comfortable writing same thing again and again,still getting gud TRPs, so why shud they experiment?

Exactly 😆! Initially they are way too into and show staunch religious values. Like for example I saw a promo of the FL adapting the Hindu vrat and Pooja something on those lines, not that am saying that's bad its just the same old same old.

rainbow2017 thumbnail
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Posted: 7 years ago
#5
There was a show on Zee TV many years back, which had an Indian Hindu girl falling in love with a Pakistani Muslim boy. They both meet in the US as students and fall for each other, and eventually their parents agree to get them married, but persuade them to settle down in the US instead of India or Pakistan. It was a beautiful love story. I don't remember the name of the show, but the characters were called Chandni and Aman and they initially misunderstand each other as being from the same religion, because of the names.

Who can forget Tamas? It was a breakthrough show on Doordarshan (aired very long back) which focused on a family of Sikhs who are going through the trauma of partition.

Frankly, the quality of shows across channels has only been declining for the last few years. The shows on Doordarshan and even Zee TV, twenty years back were far more progressive than the crap being dished out now.
Edited by rainbow2017 - 7 years ago
Ardhanarishwara thumbnail
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Posted: 7 years ago
#6

Originally posted by: Padfoot_Prongs

It's not about religion per se. It's about lack of creativity among the writers. They write different content for first few months than it is always same. They simply cant write different stories for a lengthy period.

Even if the serial is about muslims, they will show them dancing on a songs on Holi. I am not saying that they should not be shown celebrating Holi. But they go overboard for every festivals.


Now they are very comfortable writing same thing again and again,still getting gud TRPs, so why shud they experiment?

Audience is also responsible for the stagnant content...they only like saas-bahu-villain dramas...whenever they try to do something new trp won't come..so what are they supposed to do..it's a business after all.
I used to mock Gul,Ekta,Reshmi etc a lot in the past...but lately I understood fault is not theirs entirely..last few shows I watched were all content driven but got scrapped because of the low trp..latest example is Rishton ka chakravyuh on star plus..it was such a brilliant show with amazing starcast but got scrapped because of low trp..Since then I am disappointed with the audience more than the makers.
Edited by Ardhanarishwara - 7 years ago
TheRager thumbnail
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Posted: 7 years ago
#7
What is the need for secularism on Indian television? Television and films should cater to the majority and 80% of Indians are Hindus.
roni_berna thumbnail
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Posted: 7 years ago
#8
Honestly, I don't want them to consider other religions as majority of the Indian shows are crap. American shows are 100 times before and same goes for Korean and Turkish shows and I don't care about the religion aspect when the story is interesting. Doesn't matter!
MeDhakkanHu thumbnail
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Posted: 7 years ago
#9
Earlier doordarshan had amazing shows which included characters from different religions
Its now that we don't have shows based on other religions


And indian shows based on Islam & sikhism don't represent them well
576281 thumbnail
Posted: 7 years ago
#10
What I like about the Indian television and also movies is that they don't preach religion in every second scene...Even though they are mostly Hindu characters and showcase hindu rituals and customs, they are generally religion neutral! So yes...they are secular in that sense!

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