Email
Print
ShareMumbai: Don't think you are back to the Vedic ages if you hear something like, 'Sindoor mera bata to kya, par patni dharm nibhaaoongi sada'. This is just the punchline of a new TV show called Sajan Ghar Jaana Hai.
As the number of shows increase on television, channels are going all out to outdo each other. Nowadays, in a bid to promote their shows, they are giving out their punchlines too.
Choti Bahu, one of popular shows launched by Zee TV early this year, sold its idea through the punchline, 'Kya pati ka pyar bhi mujhe joothan mein milega'. Again the latest reality show Dance Premiere League promotes regional pride with the tagline 'It is izzat ka sawaal'. Then the women in another new show Betaab Dil Ki Tamanna Hai swear 'Gareeb paida hui thi, par gareeb marungi nahi'.
Funnyman Kunal Vijaykar doesn't find anything funny with the punchlines. He says, "The lines are regressive and lack creativity because the shows suffer from the same problem -- lack of variety. One successful saas-bahu show leads to a thousand others and one on children led to a few hundred of the same kind. The only solution that I can think of is to take these shows off-air."
However, Sanjay Upadhaya, the fiction head of Sony, defends this as he says, "Television shows have a certain market and target audience. In any show, you have to be very clear about your objective, like establishing the values the character stands for. This character building is like making the ideology clear so that target audience can get the idea right. In today's cut-throat competition, punchlines depict the central idea."
