Posted:
| since we have been discussing time leaps ...thought I would share this artcle from Business Standards Outdoing Medusa |
| Priyanka Joshi / New Delhi July 11, 2006 |
| ENTERTAINMENT: The secret of soap opera success: fast and furious generational leaps. |
| If Medusa turned men to stone, TV soaps are doing even better. They have got their audience nicely lobotomised to their TRP advantage. A testament to the times? |
| Yes they are, the makers of Kyunki Saas Bhi Bahu Thi, Kahnii Ghar Ghar Kii and other serials assure you, if that's the word. "The characters are lifted straight out of real life — they are you and me" is the common refrain. |
| Strained marriages, secret affairs, twisted relationships, surprise appearances, shock disappearances, exotic diseases, afflictions of amnesia, quaint murders, weird kidnappings, returns from the dead and, not to forget, instant plastic surgeries. You and me? |
| When in doubt, reach for research data. And the ratings (the TRPs) display a sustained affinity to most soaps. The secret, it seems, is what the soap makers have been saying. |
| The serials have kept up with the times, in a sense — by deploying a natty device called the generational leap. This device simply moves a story ahead at warp speed to attain the desired level of contemporarisation. |
| On available evidence, it works. "A character gets fatigued after it has gone through all the emotions and trials of life," rationalises Shailja Kejriwal, senior creative director, Star India. |
| "When its shelf life is over, you need to make additions to sustain the original brand (the serial)." She can afford to speak. Star Plus has mastered the craft of 20-year leaps, having executed the idea nicely for Kyunkii and Kahanii. "The TAM numbers are good enough to prove that we did not go wrong in our content," says Kejriwal. |
| Best of all, the soap formula is such that it is amenable to such leaps. In soaps, characters are the interest sustainers — people the audience identifies with. |
| "Soap characters are like everyday people, but then again, they are a bit fictional too. Every script wants to make its characters the strongest element, a character that can gather people's love or wrath," says Monisha Singh, vice-president, TV content, UTV, which has given Bhabhi a 10-year leap (with terrific results too). "It was a natural progression to the story," she adds, "Leaps bring in the much needed freshness to a storyline." |
| Yes, the storyline. Soaps seem readymade for leaps on this count too. Most soaps are a heady mix of patriarchal characterisation of old wives' fables, coupled with vain babbling between, say, the prodigal and a crew of villainous characters. |
| A generation change simply throws an innocent new protagonist onto the scene, with the old matrix of emotions providing the dramatic irony for the new challenges to be faced. |
| No wonder the leap trend set off by Ekta Kapoor's K-serials are now all the rage on television. Just look at the leap list. Tumhari Disha (on Zee TV), produced by Film Farm, opted for a 25-year leap; Woh Rehane Wali Mahalon ki (Sahara One), produced by Rajshri, zoomed two decades ahead; and Kesar and Kkumkum (both Star Plus) flipped forward with finger-snapping alacrity. |
| The other convenience of these leaps is that the turbulence allows characters to be shaken up, dropped off, replaced and so on at ease — and actors do need to move on. "Soaps have been the jumping board for social issues, health issues and even political issues," says Singh. |
| "Actors have gotten their start on soaps, and moved on to bigger — sometimes better — projects and writers, while producers have found homes on different channels that broadcast them." |
| Soaps, after all, are a rare genre of software in which a narrative is started without the end in mind — expected, in theory, to keep running in perpetuity. Leaps are therefore a useful soap-sustaining tool for the producer. |
| But yet, even after all this time-travel, we're left with a kind of twins' paradox. Twenty years this way or that, the sari-clad damsels stay supremely suffused with sindoor. |
| Plus c change... |
Cricket
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
Bigg Boss 19
