AN ARTICLE ON OUR SIDE..KIND OF

TV serials use the marriage plot to hook viewers but for the most part, these screen weddings are all hype and no show.

</>When TRPs of a serial start dipping, a marriage sequence is quickly brought in. But these days the new trend is to build hype for the big day and then let everything fall flat! The marriage doesn't happen, much to the ire of viewers.
Just the other day in Kahiin To Hoga, Kashish and Swayam (played by Aamna Shariff and Vikas Sethi) were to get married.

And this day came after a lot of drama. But right at the mandap there was a twist and the much--awaited shaadi couldn't take place.

Then some time ago, it was Jassi's wedding with Armaan Sir in the serial Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin. The much--talked--about wedding didn't take place at all. And viewers were disappointed. "You can't build so much hype, and at the end of it, show nothing," says Sunaina Pant, a TV buff. "Why take us for a ride?"

A couple of years ago, it happened on Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi when in the show Smriti Iraani was all set to marry Aman Verma. Of course, in that show the marriage didn't happen as her first husband returned home just in time.

Even then, the serial did create a lot of hype. Sometime back, Astitva too had a scene where Abhimanyu and Dr Simran (played by Varun Badola and Niki Aneja Walia) were about to get married the second time when suddenly Abhi vanished!

These twists in the storyline are not always accepted well by the audiences. "It can be very irritating," says housewife Mrinali Jha. Viewers don't like too many shocks, says Rati Shukla, a housewife. "Often serials give these shocks only to drag their shows. They come up with such bizarre turns."

Serial makers, of course, have no choice if they want their shows to continue. As director Ajai Sinha of Astitva says,
"If you show a couple actually getting married then you tend to struggle for a new storyline. In my show it's only when Abhi vanished, a fresh storyline could begin."