Not to take anything away from Jennifer Aniston and her incredible charisma and hard work BUT
She was lucky to be cast in one of the greatest sitcoms of all times that ran for ten whole seasons.
She was lucky to have writers and producers who wrote a show with an ensemble cast where all characters were given equal importance, character graphs, and plot lines.
She was lucky to have showrunners who defended the female characters and their openness to sex. Lookup how NBC showrunners felt about Monica sleeping with Paul the wine guy on the first date.
She was lucky to have an audience who embraced the female characters without slut-shaming them.
She was lucky to be part of an ensemble cast that considered each other equally important in the show and made the decision to collectively bargain for their salaries.
Contrast that to India where television tends to be saas-bahu drama focused. When it comes to media in general ensemble casts are not equitably utilized. Very few shows or movies give women good character graphs or plots. Audiences are not willing to embrace women who are open about their sexuality.
Can you imagine how India would react to an Indian woman who runs away from her wedding, has a sexual fling with a foreigner, sleeps with her ex-fiance when he's engaged to her best friend, breaks up with a man for cheating (they were on a break) but continues to sabotage his future relationships from convincing his girlfriend to go bald, to flying across the ocean to breakup his marriage, seduces her junior at work, has a child with her ex out of wedlock but expects him to give up his dating life to support her through pregnancy, and gets engaged (mistakenly) to his best friend immediately after the child was born, later actually has a relationship with the best friend despite being fully aware of the baggage and awkwardness.....
Jennifer Aniston became a big star because her character was layered and complex. Yes, she does a lot of mean and shitty things throughout the show, but she is also sweet, endearing, caring, and has a wonderful arc going from daddy's spoilt little girl to an independent working woman. She's totally human. Sometimes she messes up. Sometimes she sets things right. Rachel Green was so well written and developed that she became a breakout character.
Indian audiences tend to have a dichotomous view of women. She is either virginal or promiscuous. Either a spoiled brat or hardworking. Either a mean girl or miss congeniality. Either loyal or fickle. They embrace Rachel Green because she's a white New Yorker, they would not accept an Indian girl who goes through the same life graph.
Finally, Indian actors are too fickle and competitive to collaborate as an ensemble cast. It wan't about the men and women being equal either. The cast totally supported Matthew Perry through his drug problems, health issues, and rapid weight changes due to it. I simply don't see that level of collaboration to uplift each other and ensure everyone succeeds.
So India will not have a Jennifer Aniston because we do not have the environment for people like her to thrive and succeed.
Anupamaa
Sports
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