TV shows take local lingo route to shore up TRP

Every region has its distinct lingo that appeals and connects to its people like nothing else. This USP is being exploited to the hilt by some of the TV channels in Telangana, the 29th Indian state that turned two on June 2 this year, whose earthy dialect is unique in itself. The unconventional Teenmar News telecast by Hyderabad’s V6 channel has presenters who are far removed from the glamorous and good-looking newscasters.

There’s nothing extraordinary about the vivacious presenters, Bithiri Sathi (Chevella Ravi) and Savitri (Jyothi), but what makes the show a most watched news programme is its unusual presentation in the Telangana Telugu idiom laced with humour and sarcasm. The presenters’ down-to-earth looks, demeanour, attire and the local slang are an instant draw. Incidentally, Teenmar also happens to be a popular dance beat in the Telangana region.

Of course, the mainstay of the programme is the selection of the news. Shunning hard news, it picks up exciting tidbits and human-interest stories, sometimes overlooked by the mainstream media, to present it theatrically, in a comic way.  And this is what is being lapped up many Telanganites, resulting in a high TRP for the show.

Clad in outlandishly gaudy shirts and short pants, with his weird hand-gestures and oddly bent fingers, Satti comes across as a country bumpkin rather than a newsman, while his co-presenter, Savitri, looks every bit the girl next door, who, sitting in a newsroom, constantly chides her brother Satti for being lax in getting news, with her common refrain being, “Arey, thammi Satti, aemi  chestunavura vaari’’ (Oh brother Satti, What are you up to?).

Contemporary issues too are dealt with in a whimsical manner and parodies on leaders and actors and political events abound. They vary from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Telangana to a spoof on the box office hit film Kabali and from the recent killing of a Naxal-turned-gangster in Shadnagar near Hyderabad to an interesting tête-à-tête with Venkatiah, an award-winning Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation sanitation worker.

In a powwow, sitting at the doorstep of Venkataiah, recognised for his dedicated services, Satti tells the humble worker: ‘’Shun flowers and garlands, if they want to honour you with’’, for he feels that those who wear garlands don’t work. If a show highlights the harm that selfies entail, the other focuses on cruelty towards animals. This was in the wake of incidents in which a dog was thrown from a building by medical students in Tamil Nadu and the burning of puppies by some urchins in Hyderabad recently.

Another distinct V6 channel programme, Kirrak Show, though not as popular as Teenmar, is quite different in its own way. In this, two witty characters, one in the garb of a typical Telangana peasant, wearing a dhoti and a gongadi draped around his shoulder, go about interviewing public figures. The interviews, again, in Telangana dialect, shun the seriousness and grilling seen in conventional programmes. The comic characters Dasanna and Satanna try to naively floor the interviewees with their queries couched in wit and humour. Unlike most of the interview programmes, the Kirrak Show relies more on fun and merriment.

And this is just not confined to Telugu. The unmistakable Hyderabadi Urdu lingo is being used in a news programme of a channel called Real Telangana. In this newscast, scarf-wearing presenters mouth the Deccani Urdu boli, giving a hilarious twist to every event. The programme too satires public figures, events and affairs.

Making use of colloquial appeal is not something new. In the not too distant past, Bihar had seen and is still seeing its leader Lalu Prasad Yadav address in Biharli boli to sway the masses. And who will forget the wit and spontaneity of Congress leader T  Anjaiah, who rose from a low-paid worker to occupy high places.

The staid vernacular print journalism in the undivided Andhra Pradesh was reinvigorated with the launch of the Telugu daily Eenadu and its advocacy of breezy and off-the-cuff idiomatic language in the mid ’70s.  And this gave rise to homely and unrefined news headlines in Telugu print journalism.

The author is a senior journalist based in Hyderabad