Religious Soaps and the Indian viewer

Television in India came with very idealistic goals of being used as a means to leapfrog the illiterate into the New Age with informative and educative programmes. Our policy planners were of the view that the idiot box could provide more than mere entertainment, it could be a wise blend of information, education and entertainment. Thus we started hearing of infotainment, edutainment content.

In the last six decades(nearly) we have taken the prescribed detour via 'infotainment, edutainment' but landed up with more entertainment and less and less of the first two. Even after the coming of Satellite Tv, Internet based connectivity, DD under Prasar Bharati tries to straddle the disparate worlds of entertainment and infotainment. However there is no denying the fact that DD is still the storyteller to the Nation because satellite TV and DTV has made a difference to urban Urban India. And the reach of DD to the rural areas has ensured presence of developmental programming content.

However, one major programme that altered the face of televiewing was the telecast of Ramayana and Mahabharata on TV. How did it happen? Some of the factors are,

a) DD was able to convert its 'soft spot' (one with low viewrship) into one that had the eyeballs of the whole nation glued to TV.Thus it earned advertiement revenue. Sunday mornings were till then difficult to promote for advertising slots, we are told.

b) The revenue generated thus encouraged ventures into other mythologicals, dubbing the Epics into regional languages for regional language TV and a continuos money earning programme.

c)The constant refrain in the nation's broadcasting policy was to maintain a secular approach but what emerged was creation of historicals and fables on television to complete the 'secular picture.

d)Ramanand Sagar who was know for his out and out commercial cinema in Hindi was getting jaded and this new medium gave him a new position in the entertainment industry. He had however maintained that he chose the Epic for the universal appeal it had for the Indian, and further the fact that it was more amenable to the Serial format where epiodes would be easier to structure on the Text. This was not possible on the big screen. Encouraged by his success his contemporary and competitor from filmdom B R chopra decide to take the Mahabharata to the nation through television.

e) Riding the Ramayana & Mahabharata" wave came the BJP when it used symbols and icons to recreate the 'Ram Rajya' concept on the political scene. While it was when a Congress-led Ministry was heading the Govt at the Centre that screening began, it was the 'right of centre' parties and pressure groups that reaped benefits by reconstructing the glory of the country founded on Hindu tradition and culture. Striking the iron when it is hot, that is what the BJP did, and reap the benefits it did.

f) Commercialisation and profit - seeking became important withe the onset of 'liberalisation-privatisation-globalisation' age in India's economy. The medium had to be market-driven. So such programmes assured long runs on TV with little or no production costs but reaped huge profits.

g)That it pushed the country into a 'revivalist' mode is something one cannot deny. The surge continues with niche channels like 'Astha', 'Jain TV' taking cues. Competing for airtime are others like 'Shalom', 'Power Vision' which one can very surely say has scarred the social fabric no end.

While the Epics knit the country into a TV-addicted/watching Nation it also triggered the trend of luring viewers based on religious groups. And, as a long term effect the Medium had sharpened the divide between communities, revived old stereotypes in depicting hierarchies and portrayal of individuals9men and women) in a highly patriarchal society.