Indian soaps wash hands of middle class

MUMBAI:They flit across the opulent sets of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kkusum in designer wear.From the Virani khandan on Star Plus to Kkusum's gold-encrusted inlaws on Sony, one thing is clear—the social picture of India that flickers on our television screens every night is riven with distortion lines.The middle class, which forms the bulk of television audiences, is conspicuous by its absence from primetime soap operas, notes a recent study conducted by the media research organisation, Centre for Advocacy and Research in New Delhi.All the serials are set in cities.A full 57 per cent of the serials on the country's three most popular channels —Zee, Sony and Star Plus—are set in upper-class homes.While middle-class families figure in 14 per cent of the serials, the underprivileged don't feature at all.Of the 81.6 million Indian homes with television, more than 40 million have access to cable and satellite television. A large chunk of these viewers are from the middle class, say experts.However, the television industry finds no reason to apologise for its plot lines focusing on the rich and the famous. Fantasy sells, it insists. Serials offer 25 minutes of escape from realism,'' says Rajesh Pavithran of Balaji Telefilms. Sunil Lulla, executive vice-president of Sony Entertainment Television, echoes the sentiment.Entertainment television is a different genre,'' he says.Audiences can get a flavour of real life from news and educational programmes.''Contemporary soaps have seen a major shift from the social messages beamed by Indian television serials in the 1980s. Director Kavita Choudhry, who made Udaan, the inspiring success story of a middle-class girl, recollects how S S Gill, who headed Doordarshan in the '80s, was inspired by Mexico's wildly popular telenovelas, which were as educational as they were entertaining. Mr Gill invited Kundan Shah, Aziz and Saeed Mirza and writer Shyam Manohar Joshi to make programmes for television.