By Shailesh Kapoor
The disappointment around the quality of mainstream GEC content in India is not a new topic, either for this column or for the industry as such. The media discourse around poor standards of fiction content on Indian television has caught steam over the last year or two. Loss of GEC viewership has meant that broadcasters have been left with little choice. They just have to take up the transformation process on high priority.
Over the last three-four years, there have been several attempts at addressing this area, led by market leaders Star Plus and Colors. Colors has done two seasons of 24, Star Plus dabbled with finite fiction in Everest, Tamanna and Dahleez recently, and have now lined up P.O.W. Sony’s Yudh was not its first attempt at breaking the mould. After all, they started it all with YRF Television in 2010.
Most, if not all, of these attempts, have been failures of worrying magnitude. Not only have these shows not rated over their lifespan, they didn’t even open well, indicating widespread concept-level rejection by the audiences.
Casual observers will conclude that the Indian audiences are not ready for quality content and would rather be satisfied with the afternoon soaps they are being dished in the prime time. You get what you deserve, is an oft-mentioned argument. But that’s not an accurate assessment of things.
There’s high level of operating dissatisfaction, as is apparent in falling ratings and low levels of launch ratings of new fiction shows. Yes, dissatisfaction is an opportunity, but conditions apply. A dissatisfied consumer will still apply her due filters in assessing the “differentiated†content on offer. And irrelevant differentiation will never cut ice.
And that’s where the problem has been. Almost everything that been attempted as differentiated content has been conceived at the expense of viewer relevance. Dysfunctional families, dark settings, moody pace, mumbled dialogue delivery and excessive use of English have marred most of these shows. Also, for some reason, there is an obsession with the thriller genre. YRF Television bet heavily on it, and then we had 24, Yudh and now P.O.W.
Good differentiation should be in the framework of the mainstream, where you set new standards in areas of content the consumer is hungry for. The best attempts at good differentiation over the last decade or more have been a lot more inclusive:
1. Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (before the makeover)
2. Sarabhai Vs. Sarabhai
3. Balika Vadhu (the first two years)
4. Bade Achhe Lagte Hain (before the leap)
5. Ek Hasina Thi
6. Mahabharat
7. Crime Patrol (before factory production took over)
Each of these properties had a significant impact on the fortunes of the respective channels when they went on-air or when they reached their true potential. They offered good differentiation, giving the audiences new but palatable fare. They became the “middle groundâ€. The middle ground between trashy afternoon-ish soaps and the entirely unrelatable dimly-lit thrillers that are barely comprehensible to an Indian audience.
It’s this middle ground that must be treaded more often. Because it’s here that the change will come from. Bad differentiation, on the other hand, runs high risk. That of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Watch out!