The Evolution Of TV serials and their Portrayal of ‘Indian Values’ - Page 6

Originally posted by: aekiel

The reason those 80's-90's serials were considered as good and today's ones are relative crap essentially boils down to three things.

1) TV was predominantly an upper and upper middle class phenomenon in the 80's and 90's; but that bunch really doesn't watch ITV these days.

2) So, ITV today caters to the lowest common denominator, and making it even worse is the TRP system, which is super flawed in the way the rankings are calculated. I don't think anyone of us here know even one person whose house the TRP meters are installed. In Mumbai, one meter essentially speaks for the viewing habits of 10k folks. 🤡

3) ITV shows today run for 5-6 days a week, and in some cases, all seven days too! 🤪  If you're strictly sticking to logical content, there's only so much you can show in such a scenario before folks get bored. So writers go to the illogical, negative route to keep the drama quotient high (jail/hospital/kidnapping/court- see Anil Nagpal for Ekta's KKB/KDB/BL shows as an example)

Well there are tons, I have mentioned just a few of them !!

1. In the initial episodes the hero – heroine have major hatred for each other, yet destiny always forces them to be together and then somehow they would fall for each other and also will end up as world's so-called “Made-for-Each-Other-Best-Pair” !!
   
   Wonder how all the directors think alike?!!😆
   
   
2. There always exists a cunning mother-in-law. Poor woman, never able to be a good person?!
   
   
3. In case if everyone is happy in the family (Well, this will never happen, on a very rare note, if it does) there always exists one person in the family to screw things up between the happy couples.
   
   Moral: The do-gooder always ends up in getting screwed up by the baddie.
   
   
4. Absurdly large families: I still wonder how all those people will get accommodate in a single place and important part is all of them live in a palace as 98% of the families are as rich as Ambani or Birla?!!
   
   P.S: Even after losing all the property to the villain, they still manage to live in a pretty decent house, and they claim themselves as poor.
   
   Is this even Possible, seriously?!!!
   
   
5. This one is truly hilarious, No matter how much the villain tries to separate the Hero-Heroine, they always end up being in a much closer state than they were.
   
   
6. There exists at least one extra-marital affair and an illegitimate child through it.😕
   
   
7. Nobody ever dies a natural death, there has to be “A HEART ATTACK SCENE” or at least one of the lead characters in the serial would have met with an accident irrespective of time, place and scene.
   
   
8. A Hero can definitely kick the butts of gangsters and the very next day the guy would be fine with just few scratches and scars.
   
   
9. The living room seen in the first day becomes a restaurant in the next scene, and 30 minutes later it turns into an office. The same building keeps changing into a club, a bar and even a five-star hotel.[ this is not a big thing, we know how to adjust with it!]
   
   
10. The best one, Women sleep and wake up with full makeup, and they would be wearing High-End Sarees and jewels 24/7 and importantly none of the characters' hairstyle ever gets spoiled by bad weather, they are perfect to core from morning till night, they never get tanned in sun.
    
    
11. If a couple can't have kids, it is always because the woman can't conceive and never the man.
    
    
12. The bad guys never get caught and always escapes, and DNA reports are always switched and never correct.
    
    
13. Whenever someone is being chased by gangsters, they will run from a busy street into a place that is completely abandoned and empty.
    
    
14. If there exists an important document or proof in favor of the good guys, it is the bad guy who always gets it.
    
    
15. If you are poor, you are an angel and if you are rich, you are an evil, cruel and ill hearted person.😔
    
    
16. No one dies. I mean, they do, but they always mysteriously come back from the dead with a vague story.
    
    
17. Finally, they are endless – Climax for these soaps does not exist, seriously they can drag it for years. Even if it ends, it will come again as Season -2 

I have watched a lot of Indian serials in childhood. Now I don't have patience and time to watch a 30 min serial on TV whether the content is good or bad lol. I just watch online content because I can watch it in 2x speed or skip some parts as per my wish😆 Indian serials are now just meme material 😳

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

  Some  weird things about Indian tv serials----

If a couple can't have kids, it is always because the woman can't conceive and never the man.

yes this is the what bothers me a lot. All the name calling is just ridiculous and preposterous! The way surrogacy is showed just to cater nonsense third angles in the story is so crass and cheap! It sends a wrong message and misleads and scares people of surrogacy.

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

Well said. ❤️ The narrative should come to a logical conclusion at the appropriate point.

The production house's reputation is damaged by stretching out the shows with pointless dramas.

To keep their viewership intact, they began introducing multi-stage marriages and further SR postponements, with these pointless prolongation to make the show more fascinating. 

India’s first television drama was Hum Log (Hindi) which aired in 1984-85 and concluded with 154 episodes. 

Some of the popular longest running serials with episodes more than 1000 episodes were Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (Hindi), Char Divas Sasuche (Marathi), Abhishekam (Telugu). Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah (Hindi) (2008- to present) is the longest-running TV show in India. These dramas or serials deal with issues in families due to a patriarchal ideology. 

A 2007 study on cable channels showed that the dramas decreased the acceptability of domestic violence toward women and the preference for a male child over a daughter. With the increased participation of women in household decision-making, we have a long way to go to embed an ethical conscience in people through Indian TV serials.

Many viewers argue that Indian TV serials are too long, pathetic and worse and have a meaningless ending to character and story arcs. 

@ blue

This is what the entertainment fraternity as a whole need to understand.

Especially the ones in ITV, because TV is the most widespread medium in the country.

Whatever is dished out on it, people get influenced by it.

But unfortunately lately this medium has been the most rotten one.

1. There exists at least one extra-marital affair and an illegitimate child.
2. If a couple can't have kids, it is always because the woman can't conceive and never the man.
   
   
3. If you are poor, you are an angel and if you are rich, you are an evil, cruel and ill hearted person.😔
   
   
4. Finally, they are endless – Climax for these soaps does not exist, seriously they can drag it for years. Even if it ends, it will come again as Season -2 

@ green

And in this scenario also the wife is asked to compromise because she is a ‘good wife’ and this is what she should do to keep the family together. No one suggests otherwise.If someone does then he/she is the villain trying to separate the lovers.

I mean someone who cheated, can that person be really faithful even towards love?

@ blue

This concept angers me the most.

It’s like indirectly portraying the fact that if you are educated, earning, independent you aren’t fit to be called a good human

And you will always be planning and plotting.

Is ITV indirectly trying to show that being independent, educated and opinionated female is a crime?

And then they talk about Women empowerment.

The irony of ITV!!

@pink

Because that is what has been assumed and presumed till date just like being a girl or a boy depends on a woman.

And ITV is doing almost nothing to change it.

Perks of being a patriarchal society.

And if by chance any episode shows this, the next episode completely nullifies it because how can the male lead be at fault even if it’s a medical condition

Originally posted by: aekiel

The reason those 80's-90's serials were considered as good and today's ones are relative crap essentially boils down to three things.

1) TV was predominantly an upper and upper middle class phenomenon in the 80's and 90's; but that bunch really doesn't watch ITV these days.

2) So, ITV today caters to the lowest common denominator, and making it even worse is the TRP system, which is super flawed in the way the rankings are calculated. I don't think anyone of us here know even one person whose house the TRP meters are installed. In Mumbai, one meter essentially speaks for the viewing habits of 10k folks. 🤡

3) ITV shows today run for 5-6 days a week, and in some cases, all seven days too! 🤪  If you're strictly sticking to logical content, there's only so much you can show in such a scenario before folks get bored. So writers go to the illogical, negative route to keep the drama quotient high (jail/hospital/kidnapping/court- see Anil Nagpal for Ekta's KKB/KDB/BL shows as an example)

Apart from this I think the people who were there at that time in the entertainment industry believed in the fact that this is a medium which can bring changes to the society as a whole and thus strived towards it.

There are many theatre plays happening which takes up topics that makes the audience question their sense of thinking once they come out of the theatre.

ITV in 80s and 90s did the same.

They didn’t shy away from showing a lady waging a war against two influential people who raped her mother (Shanti) or a woman marrying a man 10 years younger than her (Astitva) etc…

Because at that time these people thought of this as a responsibility to give back to the society and strive to bring it to where they wished to see it.

As it is said

 ‘Revolution is started not based on economic advantages, large numbers, or powerful organization, but on sheer ability to write, to think, and to speak.’

Then again the funny thing is.

They will show that being money minded means being evil.Then again they will show in their own shows only what gives them money and ratings.

They are so money- minded that to get money they portray in the shows that being money minded is evil🤣

Does that mean they are portraying themselves as evil???

🤣

The topics just seem to be getting worse and worse every year😳

From polygamy, to abuse, to sister rivalry, to groom swapping

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

A 2007 study on cable channels showed that the dramas decreased the acceptability of domestic violence toward women and the preference for a male child over a daughter.

I don't recall seeing any content from 2007, but if such a study were done in more recent years, I suspect that it would show the opposite.

When the audience constantly sees the good mother slapping her son/daughter for saying something, the good brother being told to control his sister's social life, the good father throwing glassware or setting stuff on fire because the family honour has been damaged, the good mother-in-law telling her daughter-in-law to go hungry, the good husband yanking his wife out of bed on suspicion that her pregnancy didn't end naturally ... and no matter what they've done, a beatific expression on every face at the pūjā the next day ... wouldn't the audience think that violence is just another way to communicate emotions at home?

When every character says, "I only want a baby girl. Only girls hold the family together," why wouldn't the audience think that it's socially acceptable to talk about sex selection preference? The character says he only wants a girl; the viewer says he only wants a boy. Imagine if characters said instead, "Girl or boy, we can afford either one because we both have steady jobs. Let's just pray for a healthy child and that we take good care of whatever we get." Indifference to daughters/sons as a symbol of socioeconomic status could be aspirational.

Full disclosure: I oppose laws that ban embryonic/fetal sex selection because they are back-door efforts to restrict a woman's reproductive autonomy, and their effect is to trap women with their female children in abusive families. Nevertheless, I support propaganda that we should appreciate the wonder of not knowing who our children will be, and finding out as they discover themselves.

Originally posted by: la_Reine

The topics just seem to be getting worse and worse every year😳

From polygamy, to abuse, to sister rivalry, to groom swapping

The content is getting filthier by the minutes!🤓