Big time for small screen
B. SHIVA SHANKAR
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The Kannada mega serial has stepped into its tenth year. While the cast and crew are happy and contented, it hasn't been so enriching for the audience
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MEGA FRAMESGone are the days of 13-episode serials. Now they just go on endlessly for years, with women-oriented themes being a big draw; a scene from B. Suresh's Kalyani
A small-time Kannada actor said recently: "We are earning like IT professionals with much less burden. We have a five-day week and visit our work place between morning and evening with very rare extension beyond nightfall." He is among the scores of TV artistes who are making the best of the boom period in the daily soap industry spawned by the explosion of Kannada TV channels. And their viewership? The near-empty roads in the residential localities of Bangalore and the rest of Karnataka in the evening hours bear eloquent testimony to this.
Interestingly, Kannada TV industry is entering into its tenth year this March. Shakthi, when it hit small screen on March 3, 1998, was not just beginning a new chapter in small screen but was unleashing an era. It was the first Kannada daily soap, made by Ravikiran for Nimbus Communication for Udaya TV. It began as a simultaneous remake of Tamil serial with the same name but later took off on its own path to complete 547 episodes. In fact, Manethana, directed by Gurudutt for Doordarshan, was the first mega serial in Kannada. It started shooting much earlier than Shakthi, but Shakthi turned out to be the first to hit the small screen followed by Manethana.
With majority of slots in channels filled by mega serials now, viewers have almost forgotten the days of Malgudi Days and Conductor Kariyappa when people eagerly waited with for the next episode to be aired. Gone are the days of single episodes, which posed creative challenge to the makers and catered to the appetite of the viewers. Karnataka Television Association president B. Suresh, who is also directing an ongoing serial Naakutanthi on Udaya, says it is just not possible to go back to shorter version because people are accustomed to a long, endless stories that haunt them everyday. According to him, our curiosity for stories goes back to listening to the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharatha. Mega serials are addressing this and people are satisfied.
Early entrant
Ravikiran, among the earliest to venture into the medium, attributes this to the economics of small screen. Advertisers sponsor all these mega serials. Ad revenue is the bread and butter of channels and it depends on TRP (television rating point). A serial needs at least 45 to 50 episodes to record TRP. To make up for the loss incurred in the due course, there is no other option but to extend the number of episodes. It is a like a whirlpool and there's no escape for the producer. But in the process, the casualty is quality and compact story-telling. They say mega serial is a writer's medium. But this very writer has been reduced to someone who churns out reams and reams of mindless dialogue, all with the sole intention of a long run. N. Krishnamurthy, who has scripted several mega serials including the ongoing Baduku and Sukanya, begs to differ. He says scripting a mega serial is no less than a creative exercise. Expanding on a subject needs wider imagination. He, however, admits that writing a mega serial is more a physical strain unlike the creative fun one can have in cinema. The easy victim of this anxiety — of what should the next episode's story should be — is the woman. She is the most vulnerable prey to the instant story cooked up for the next day's shooting. With several constraints like time factor and low budget, serial makers are increasingly resorting to woman-oriented subjects. It is an accepted industry norm that while small screen is a heroine's fiefdom the silver screen is the hero's turf. A male-centric subject requires a rich treatment and richer expenditure as the story goes well-beyond the four walls of a house. And a small screen hero cannot compete with the reigning emperors of big screen. Hence a sobbing woman is the darling of mega serial producers.
B. Suresh doesn't mince words when it comes to the portrayal of women in serials. Either she is soaking in sorrow or is the punching bag of all ills. Both are unrealistic. Serials, he says, are painting women with all the wrong colours just to grab the eyeballs, which however does translate profitably into TRP. At the same time, he says there is a positive side to them, he argues. A group of women in Dharwad have formed an association motivated by his serial Naakuthanthi. The name of the association is Naakuthanthi Mahila Sangha and is into social activities. King of the small screen T.N. Seetharam's Muktha might have turned many women in society into Madhavi Patels.
`Coffee' Raghavendra says the well-made serials have influenced women positively and has helped them to be assertive and face challenges. He draws attention to rural women, who are out-spoken before TV cameras of the various news channels. One evident fact with the mega serials is their irrefutable contribution to the growth of industry. Today, almost every producer has got his own edit set-up and production unit. These units have ensured employment throughout the year to hundreds of technicians and semi-skilled workers. Cameramen and video editors are hired on yearly basis. They never dreamt of such a steady flow of work in the past. Artistes who were deprived of opportunities in the big screen are now full up with small screen work. The producers are counting crores apart from becoming huge employers. At what cost? Vicious men, scheming women, precocious kids, amorous relationships aren't too good for the well being of a society. But then market has the last word. Whatever happened to all those humble serials that spoke of humble people, even as they took you on a grand journey of great literature, enriching our lives.
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