Among the several jokes about the Hindi GECs, the most repeated one is how a slap has to be repeated at least thrice for it to register on the faces of its viewers. The reason, given by those who only watch English GECs, and of course 'Friends' and 'Sex in the City' are in the league of cerebral dramas, is that the GEC aunty is a space cadet and hence generally mistakes the first slap on a saas bahu serial to be part of foreplay.
But make no mistake, it’s this cabal of aunties who orchestrate the ratings game on the Great Hindi GEC set. Sample this: last week 'Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai' on Star Plus was the No. 1 serial with 5.13 TVRs and the next week 'Sathiya Saath Nibhana' on the same channel displaced it with almost the same number!
Even as the producers of both the soaps must be busy thinking of the most bizarre twist to their respective tales, there is a “quiet” movement brewing within the Hindi GEC space. And in this one there is no place for “ pairee pona ”, or “ jeetey raho ”; its more like what was at one time made famous by Bhajji: teri ma ki… The aunties are slowly moving and like the industrious ants perhaps shifting focus to reality TV where as they put it: sachchi baat dikhatey hain (they show us real stuff).
Let’s look at some of the shows which not only created a fantastic buzz for the channels they were on but also garnered numbers.
'MTV Roadies' is one example which as their flagship show showcases some hapless kids from satellite towns who are put to test by a few smart-ass men, a pair of twins to boot, on an S&M trip. The third degree, politely termed as auditions, makes a hardened cop from Haryana look like Mickey Mouse. The judges use the most innovative of Hindi expletives, the participants are reduced to pulp and the viewer refuses to budge because he loves to see blood and shards of kids’ egos.
Disgusting, some would say, but this is voyeurism and it has arrived on both Hindi GEC and music channels. MTV channel honchos and the largest-selling bikes around the world as the show sponsors cheered in glee and with dollops of MC- BC thrown in when the show picked up a TVR of 4.67 and sans the complicated plots of a saas bahu soap!
There is no gainsaying that Colors arrived in the market as the alternative channel for women who were fed up of Ekta’s daily dose of K for kachra , as some said, but they created what even Ekta failed to: Dolly Bindra, that neckless wonder who not only reduced even the Great Khali to feather weight with her invective reckoner but also pushed and shoved every woman inmate only because she thought they were “characterless”. Do women of good families behave like this? Colors’ top management couldn’t care less because this was like unveiling the gouged faces in a mortuary and the people cheered for more. The grand finale of 'Bigg Boss' rocked at 6.7 TVRs.
And then there is an entire channel called Bindass which with its “finger to you” logo has taken the youth by storm and incubating future aunties who are now being fed on a daily dose of 'Emotional Atyachaar' (or cheaters), 'Love Lock Up' and the 'Big Switch'. All these shows are highly edgy and not for the faint-hearted as a five-minute segment on these has at least 25 beeps to let the viewers know the other side of Mother’s Day!
The move has started and for the great Indian Hindu wife, benign voyeuristic shows, despite sounding like oxymorons, like 'Life Bina Wife' or 'Ma Exchange' on Sony reflect what perhaps the serials have failed to so far: real life situations. It won’t be long before such gladiatorial shows that truly insult the undeserving and applaud the ones who can sail through a minefield of abuse and beatings become showstoppers.