THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Reading a woman’s mind is a difficult task for nearly all men. But quite a few, who could understand her psychology and emotions excel not just in their family life, but also in their professional life.
Meet Pradeep Panicker, a former theatre playwright who is now one of the most sought-after serial scriptwriters in the Malayalam television industry. During his 17-year-long career, Panicker wrote script for 7,000 episodes for soaps in different channels, a record of sorts in the industry.
At present, he writes for four popular serials including Karuthamuthu and Bharya. While soap opera fans are stereotyped as lazy and unintelligent, Panicker begs to differ.
"Our serial plots are driven by viewers' preference, thanks to the TAM ratings. And it is a challenging task to live up to their expectations, especially when you are writing for more than one soap," Panicker says.
Panicker's serials have a consistent rating in the TAM, which makes him a director's choice.
He stepped into the serial industry with Ezhilambala aired on Thiruvananthapuram Doordarshan in 1999. "Initially, I had some apprehensions, but the producer couple E A Rajendran and Sandhya Rajendran encouraged me to take up the challenge," he says.
Serial narration has undergone sweeping changes over the years, says Panicker. "Long narratives of a suffering woman who wins in the concluding episodes are a thing of the past. As per the current trend, the viewer wants the heroine to win over the villain quite frequently," he says.
The new trend has made the writer's task more difficult, according to Panicker. "We overcome this challenge by creating multiple story lines with adequate twists and turns," he says.
Downplaying the criticism that TV serials feed negative emotions, Panicker says it is purely the viewer's choice to watch or skip it. "Unfortunately, there are not many takers for good content. Once I made such an attempt in my serial Sooryaputhri, but eventually I had to return to the beaten track following a drop in rating," he says.
Panicker's hit serials include Thulabharam, Kumkumapoovu, Chandrodayam, Parasparam and Sthreedhanam. He has won Asianet awards for best screenplay a record 5 times.
Pradeep Panicker was initiated into theatre by his father, a state award winning actor late NG Panicker. Pradeep wrote 35-odd dramas of which many like Kargilum Cricketum ran to packed houses across the State.
His wife Dhanya is a homemaker and daughter Lakshmi Parvathy is an eighth standard student.
He is now writing a book which delves deep into the busy life of a serial scriptwriter. It will reveal some untold stories, more melodramatic than serials, he says. His dream project is a theatre group.