What's common to prime time TV?

new delhi: forget the ratings war. coming soon on sony, at 9.30 pm is a daily soap, kutumb, just after you finish watching kkusum, another daily opera. flip to zee tv, again at 9.30, where koi apna sa has just started. or if you prefer an old favourite, go to kahaani ghar ghar ki on star plus, the potential new home for yet another family drama, kasauti, beginning at 8 pm.so, what's common to them? the k-factor, yes. but also, the producers, balaji telefilms, which shoots all these sagas in balaji house, the six-floor office complex in mumbai's andheri. a quick tour of it is in fact like a map of prime time television in india. basement: kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi, star plus, 10.30 pm. fourth floor: kahaani ghar ghar ki, 10 pm. fifth: kabhii sautan kabhii saheli, dd metro, 9.30 pm, and kalash, star plus, 8.00 pm aired on tuesdays. sixth floor: bedroom scenes of all of the above. what's also common is the plotlines: full of scheming mothers-in-law, adulterous husbands, and permanently pregnant women. and they're all rich. so, won't the competition cancel each other out? shobha kapoor, mother of ekta kapoor and managing director of balaji telefilms, doesn't think so: ``the competition is absolutely unavoidable. all the channels want a programmer who reaches out to women. they're the ones watching soaps. the men watch sports or news.'' sony ceo kunal dasgupta, who commissioned kkusum four months ago, says: ``well, balaji was doing very well on star plus, so it made sense to have them with us here.'' he says he's vindicated because kkusum is getting trps between four and six. as for sameer nair, the programming head of star plus, who started it all, he says: ``balaji seems to cracked the formula for tv success in india: family drama. their usp is stories that are well-told. so all channels want them.'' that hasn't stopped critics from rubbishing the revival of traditional rituals in the k-serials. ``the `indianness' of balaji telefilms serials is something that all channels want to identify with. they no longer want to be branded promoters of western culture,'' says shohini ghosh, reader, video and production, mass communication research centre, jamia millia islamia. ``if `keys' are the significant link between saas and bahu in kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi, then the diya is equally important in kahaani ghar ghar ki. second, the family is not utopian, it's a fractured and conflicting. there is a notion of misunderstanding, extra-martial affairs and the past-catching-present phenomenon.'' for shobha kapoor, though, it's all about `content'. ``we have it, that's why everyone wants us.''