Stop or the viewer will shoot

 

For those wondering why their television channels are suddenly spewing sameness, here’s a tip. Look behind the scenes. The series of small town daughters who have started making an appearance on Star Plus, from Bidaai to Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat, have something to do with the team that is creating them—led by Vikas Bahl, the man who crafted the circuit breaking Saat Phere on Zee TV. The team that currently guides fortunes at NDTV Imagine is almost entirely made up of the Star Plus diaspora. And when they pulled Ramayanout of the hat, those they had left behind at Star Plus dusted Mahabharata off its two-year-old mothballs and quickly announced it to cash in on a yet another me-too move. Such is the similarity that channels are even running out of guests for their reality shows. Ronit and Rohit Roy, brothers who were host and participant in Sony’s Jhalak Dikhla Jaa 2 are now participants in 9X’s Yeh Hai Jalwa, which also stars Prachi Desai, who won Jhalak Dikhla Jaa 2, and Rakhi Sawant, fresh out of yet another dance show, Nach Baliye 3. Saroj Khan, a celebrity judge on Nach Baliye 3, has her own show on NDTV Imagine now, Nachle Ve.

The results of this famine of ideas are there for all to see. Audiences are split down the middle between Star Plus and Zee, whose channel shares in the week ended March 1 were 29 per cent and 27 per cent respectively, according to Television Audience Measurement (TAM). In the same week, while Star Plus had 10 shows in the top 20, Zee TV had eight. Despite the launch of two new channels in the past six months, the general entertainment genre is at its smallest ever, having declined from 21.3 per cent in 2004 to 20.2 per cent in 2007 of the total share. In contrast, Hindi news is up from 2.7 to 4.2 per cent. Ratings are down across the board, shared between saas-bahu and beti-behen dramas— even Ramayan, which has been a so-called dramatic success, has actually notched an anaemic 3.19, less than half the highest-rated show, and number 18 in the list of top 20 shows. And the channel itself with an audience share of eight per cent is just a notch above Sony Entertainment TV and Doordarshan. It’s reflected in the advertising rates. While about two years ago, a 10 second ad spot on a top-rated show like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi used to cost approximately Rs 1.3 lakh, today a toprated show like Dulhann only commands a lakh.

Participants of the musical show Mission Ustaad on 9X

The situation is such that two years ago, both Zee TV and Star One publicised the same show, Betiyaan, till the former went to court and yelled copycat. Easier than all this is, of course, to take a flight out to the closest television software fair and pick up an international reality show format for about Rs 1.5 crore, plus a share of the advertising and SMS-phone call earnings. “It’s a lot like fashion. When bell-bottoms are in, everyone wears them. When a format becomes successful, there’s no harm in doing the same. It’s about what the audience likes and giving it to them,” says Indrani Mukherjea, CEO of INX Media, the parent company of 9X, co-founded by her husband Peter, who formerly was chairman of Star Television India.

There is a creative crisis in the industry that is causing its stars to flee, with actors refusing to participate in stories that require them to age 30 years in one flash—by Ekta Kapoor’s own admission, Baa, a character on Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is anywhere between 200 and 250 years. There is talent shortage as well, as witnessed by Balaji Telefilms’s arm-twisting of late, whether it is sending Barkha Bisht a legal notice after she chose to give more time to Rajashri’s Pyaar Ke Do Naam, Ek Raadha Ek Shyaam, or trying to bind Pulkit Samrat to a contract he says is unfair. From as early as the very first television hero, Amarr ‘Mihir’ Upadhyay, actors like Sweta Keswani, Hussain Kuwajerwala, Shweta Kawatra, Cezanne Khan and the latest exit Manish Naggdev have chosen to walk out than raise onscreen grandkids. “I was getting film offers based on my role as a young Mihir. I didn’t want to play an older man because it would have conflicted with my films,” says Upadhyay. Ageing apart, there is another reason that actors are wanting out. Tired of banal storylines, television superstars like Rajeev Khandelwal, Iqbal Khan, Cezanne Khan and Upadhyay have walked out in search of exciting work. “I made a conscious decision to work for a smaller channel like Star One because the content excites me,” says Iqbal, who gave up the gruelling 14-hour schedule of Kaisa Yeh Pyar Hai and Karam Apna Apna for Choona Hai Aasman. “Even if production houses want to do something different, channels interfere. All they care about is the commercial aspect,” says Khandelwal, who quit Kahin Toh Hoga, because, “I couldn’t take doing the same thing.”

But at least Khandelwal’s show had a four-year run. Channels seem to want instant success, not allowing shows that are somewhat different to grow on audiences. In the last two years, at least six shows, launched with much fanfare, have been pulled off the air because of dismal TRPs. The latest to bite the dust is Zee TV’s Ardhangini. Launched just four months ago with grandiose sets, the show started off as a love story, graduated to a saas-bahu saga and ended as a thriller and will bid viewers goodbye on April 3. This isn’t the first time. Smriti Irani quit Balaji’s busy corridors to start her production company. But her first two shows which emphasised the opposite of the abla nari (weak woman), Thodi Si Zameen Thoda Sa Aasmaanon Star Plus and Virruddh on Sony, were both junked before they could complete one year. This is the same Tulsi who managed to make audiences tune in for seven years with her mix of suffering and sacrifice.

Saga of boredom The share of Hindi general entertainment channels has fallen from 21.3 per cent in 2004 to 20.2 per cent in 2007. The highest rated show for the week ended on March 1 was Banoo Main Teri Dulhann on Zee TV at 4.7, compared to the week ended March 1 in 2006, when it was Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi at 9. Star Plus which leads with saas-bahu sagas and Zee TV which leads with dramatic daughters are neck and neck in the top 100 shows, with Star Plus leading with 35 shows and Zee TV with 29.

The herd mentality rules. If Star Plus announces Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain with a Rs 5-crore prize, Star One launches Kisko Milega Cash giving away Rs 5 lakh every day. If Zee TV travels back in time with a show about a shape shifter snake, an icchadari naagin for the uninitiated, Sahara One joins the “regressives” (as they are called in production houses) with its very own Neeli Aankhen. Even the reality formats haven’t been spared. Not content with poaching Gajendra Singh from Zee TV in 2006, Star Plus also cloned the formats. So if Zee TV had Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs, Gajendra’s clone of his own show Star Voice of India had its junior version, Star Voice of India Chhote Ustad. Ditto with 9X, which joined the fun and games by launching Chak De Bachche—their attempt at finding the next dancing and singing child superstar.

Gautami Kapoor plays Tulsi in Star Plus?s Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi

Efforts to launch youth-oriented channels have come unstuck. Take Star One, launched in 2004 as a niche network for the urban youth. It’s a fickle audience—the 16 to 34-yearolds. To tap into this audience that has no time for saas-bahu and beti sagas and invariably turns to music channels, Star One started with a bang with shows like Remix, India Calling, Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and The Great Indian Comedy Show. It topped this with the first season of Nach Baliye that started the celebrity dance-drama craze. But Nach Baliye’s second season was shifted to Star Plus and The Great Indian Comedy Show as well as Sarabhai vs Sarabhai ended their first season. So out went shows targeting the urban hip and in came shows aimed at India’s top 20 towns, from Betiyaan—Apna Ya Paraya Dhan, a soap about the travails of being a daughter, to Dill Mil Gaye, a story about inter-personal relationships set against the backdrop of a hospital. The latest casualty in the youth-based space has been Zee TV’s younger cousin, Zee Next. The channel currently has a market share of only 0.4 per cent, according to Audience Measurement and Analytics Limited.

“We don’t want to do different things. We just want to do things differently,” says Shailaja Kejriwal, executive vice-president, content, NDTV Imagine. Yes, if one says that Ramayan is Doordarshan redux with better technology, or Radha Ki Betiyaan Kuch Kar Dikhayengi is Banegi Apni Baat 10 years later— ironically, the struggle of a mother to bring up multiple daughters in a big town is being churned out by the same team of Deeya and Tony Singh.

In the next one year, at least three new entertainment channels, one each by Viacom18, Reliance and Miditech-Turner, will vie for audience attention. Art Buchwald once said, “Every time you think television has hit its lowest ebb, a new type of programme comes along to make you wonder where you thought the ebb was?” Siddhartha Basu, chairman of Synergy Adlabs, sees hope in the clutter-cutters such as his own forthcoming real (as opposed to reality) show Aap Ki Kacheri on Star Plus and the instructional show, Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain, on NDTV Imagine. Will he, and indeed Hindi entertainment channels, prove Mr Buchwald right?