JOIN USFrom the past two months, in the already strange world of Hindi entertainment television, stranger things have been happening. No, I don’t mean snakes morphing into humans, bahus turning into flies, and cast members of the yawn-fest Saath Nibhana Saathiya having tea parties in prisons. These are now commonplace in the muddied lather of TV soaps.
I am talking fan wars. As unbelievable as it sounds, vicious and sniping fandoms, rivalling that of any famous international series, took out their knives online when Star Plus announced the third season of its hugely popular soap Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon with a new cast, except the main lead Barun Sobti, who is reprising his role of the angsty, tortured and angry hero, albeit with a (slightly) new name.
Trolls who wanted the original cast members in the new season were out in full force abusing the cast, the channel, and the directors, and running boycott campaigns. Nevertheless, on the day the show premiered, Hotstar, Star Plus’s online platform, was jammed awhile due to heavy traffic, and the name of the serial was the top trend on Twitter.
Which just is more proof that sequels, seasons and spin-offs have finally arrived in India. Sequels have long been a staple of Western television but Indian soaps, with their long-running sagas, rarely offered a decent closure, let alone a sequel.
But audience disinterest is forcing the makers to rethink, and perhaps, the muck is about to be cleared. It seems, finally, television producers and channels have realised the financial potential of churning a hit series afresh.
So, there is news that the much-loved Khichdi might be served once more; and we will get to enjoy the shenanigans of the notorious five on our screens again in the form of Hum Paanch Phir Se. The laugh riot Sarabhai Versus Sarabhai has already come back as a web series, though it lacks the chutzpah of the original.
As part of this larger trend, television is also opening up to include finite series and weekend soaps — a welcome relief from stories stretched beyond redemption. Some of these finite series such as P.O.W., a tale of Kargil war prisoners, and 24, the Indian version of the international series, were indeed solid television — they did boast of good scripts, fast pace and commendable acting. For that matter, the much-maligned but top-rated Naagin on Colors is also a finite series and at least the first season was energetic and entertaining.
In fact, Star Plus, with Colors and Zee TV snapping at its heels, is scrambling to do everything to stay ahead. Just a few months ago, it announced the first-ever spin-off series in India — Dil Bole Oberoi — a take-off from the original tale of three dudes and their lives, Ishqbaaaz. Zee TV is about to follow suit with its Kundali Bhagya, a twin to its popular soap Kumkum Bhagya. Yeah, those are real titles.
Such is the copycat nature of entertainment television in India that pretty soon, we will hear of several such spin-offs, and be warned, the titles might get weirder. And this is where the problem really lies. When in the early 2000s, Ekta Kapoor began producing kitchen politics’s soaps, every other maker and his uncle followed her like blind sheep. Soon, we had such a glut of bickering saas-bahus that it became hard to switch on the TV without feeling nauseated. That trend is on its death bed and thank heavens for that.
One just hopes the present day love for sequels does not mean empty marketing and hollow tales based only on the recall value of hit series and the nostalgia of fans. As we have seen in the case of Iss Pyaar Ko…, fans can be notoriously short-fused.
Television producers will do good to remember that strategies without real stories are sure to fall flat, sooner or later.