Following widespread complaints and criticism in the media, Asianet has decided to change the storyline of the popular soap opera ‘Parijatam’. The change is expected to breath some freshness into the scandalous serial that is aired from 7.30 pm to 8.30 pm. The serial had drawn flak for making the child protagonist wear a vile frown on his tender face, mouth spiteful dialogues and act out dreadfully hideous deeds.
The channel has asked the producer, Baiju Devaraj, to bring in a change of scenario with effect from this week. “Parijatham was definitely over the top. I have asked the producer to change the storyline and we have also launched a promo on those lines,” said Sarath Chandran, assistant vice-president (programmes and serials), Asianet.
‘Expresso’ had reported that the depiction of events in two of Asianet’s serials in the prime-time slot, ‘Parijatham’ and ‘Autograph’ (aired at 6.30 pm), was fizzing up into a deadly cocktail. Baiju Devaraj, producer and project director of both the serials, had put up a brave front defending his works, claiming that a message will be put across at the very end, forbidding children to choose the path of evil. He had also confessed that the stunts were required to keep up the TRP ratings.
However, Sarath Chandran denied the allegation that the serial ‘Autograph’ also contained violent scenes. He also didn’t think that Deepa, the rival of the ‘Five Fingers’ group (all plus-one students), sneaking out a bottle of acid from the school laboratory and pouring it on her enemy’s face is violence. “But it turned out that the bottle only had water,” he exclaimed. The teenager, uttering a vengeful monologue, hiding in the dark in wait of her prey and splashing the liquid on her classmate’s face - all this fails to qualify as violence, thanks to the standards already in place.
Sarath Chandran told us on a confessional note there is too much violence around and “only if we mimic some of it can we keep up our hold on the market.”
There is actually nothing to rejoice, just a faint sigh of relief. Not exactly about the step taken by the channel to keep a tab, but for telling the hapless viewers that just because a weird bunch of chaps can cook up maniac tales, they need not always have an autocracy over the screen space and the viewer’s sensibilities.
aswathy@expressbuzz.com