Bold is beautiful for television industry

While television has progressed in every form and today is almost as big as the silver screen, certain issues were taboo topics and untouched until now. With increased production costs, bigger budgets, bigger actors and a wide range of shows, television seems to be ready to take the final plunge — of getting bold. Little surprise then, there are shows that have characters cope with issues relating to sex, lust, carnal desires, physicality, philandering, unrestrained rage, cheating and almost everything else that satisfies the voyeur in the viewer.

The bold urban youth — labelled the MTV generation — is using language filled with expletives and so it is natural to depict the reality on TV. Reality shows like Splitsvilla and Roadies were among the first few shows that clicked with the young audience, because it showed youngsters in the same light — rebellious, unabashedly open and unapologetic. The Indian version of Moment of Truth that was declared inappropriate for primetime viewing and was moved to a late-night slot. Episodes of Big Boss featuring motor mouths like Pamela Anderson and item girl Rakhi Sawant were also demanded to be shifted to a later time slot (10 pm instead of 9 pm) because of the supposed unsuitable content for Indian sensibility.

TV has come a long way since, as the small screen now shows couples getting intimate on screen. Actor Angad Hasija, currently seen in Phulwa, a show set in a village, has been there and done that, and says, “TV has definitely got bold with time. The days of flowers being used to show intimacy are behind us now. When a couple is on their honeymoon, intimate scenes are only logical. TV audiences have progressed and so have producers.” Actor Gurmeet Choudhary of Geet... Hui Sabse Parayee also agrees. “The scenario was different a decade back, with everybody getting upset over the slightest of skin show. Even actors would feel embarrassed about doing such scenes but now when I do a shirtless scene, I gather that people also appreciate it. The audience wants to see more reality,” says Gurmeet.

Actor Karan Tacker of Yash Patnaik’s Rang Badalti Odani says, “I won’t  say bold but I would like to refer to this phenomenon as real. TV shows what is authentic to take story forward.”

While there are a few actors who are okay with baring it all, some are still not in favour of resorting to go bold to gain TRPs. Actor Manish Paul says, “I know that now our society is no longer as conservative as it was but who sets the limit to boldness? TV must curb itself from going overboard because kids and old people watch it regularly and bold content can make a bad impression on them. I know this bold and love making scenes are to rope in extra eyeballs but we have to keep in mind our social norms. People shouldn’t fall that low for temporary rise in TRPs.”

Actor Dilip Joshi too echoes similar sentiments. “This is really bad. With films we can get an ‘A’ certificate and control what kids watch on but that’s hard to do on TV. The small screen connects to the masses directly and it is uncensored, so we can’t be that bold. Honestly, I think that because most of the serials don’t have good content, they resort to bold measures to gather hype,” says Dilip.