Why Is TV So Addictive?
“We are a typical DINKS (double income, no kids) couple, so there’s no one to come back home to, except these voices and faces on the small screen, which have become familiar sounds and sights now. It is like having people around you, there’s something reassuring. I actually cook dinner and lay the table in-between ad-breaks.

When somebody, including my husband, calls up during one of those especially nail-biting moments in my favourite serials, I get pretty impatient. If this is addiction, I have no qualms in declaring that I am a complete TV addict,” says Saswati Sen, a journalist.

“I realise that I am obsessed with watching TV, but it is something that relaxes me immensely after a hard day’s work. Look at it this way: My husband’s vice is smoking, mine is watching soaps,” says entrepreneur Nutan Prakash.

According to housewife Ranjana Kumar, "I manage the house and kids as well as my ailing in-laws. My husband is a busy man and I’m there to see to their every need. So the time I spend watching TV is my own and I sometimes get very irritated when my husband reaches home late around 10 pm and insists on chatting or making fun of my serials. Now we have two TVs at home. I monopolise the one in the bedroom, though after 10.30 pm, he insists on watching news nowadays. I also watch TV for a couple of hours in the afternoon if a good movie is on. If it’s good and stretches till 5 pm, then I don’t even mind foregoing my evening walk!”

Actress Mouli Ganguly, who plays Shaina in Kahin Kissi Roz on Star Plus, observes, ‘’Most Indian women are not the outdoor type, living most part of their lives within their homes, with its responsibilities and worries. The world of television is like a vent to them. It frees them from the dead monotony of their humdrum lives and allows them to sail along with the latest fashion trends, jewellery, make-up, flashy cars, mobiles and imitate or at least aspire to imbibe lifestyles of the so-called rich and famous homes as shown in the soaps.

Many a time, we have been stopped by women viewers on the streets and asked where we shop for our jewellery and bindi ’s, etc.’’ No wonder, then that most serials cater to a women audience. Says actress Raima Sen, ‘’Most serials on almost all Bengali channels cater to this huge female viewership. The central character is almost always a woman and the story revolves around her.’’

Clearly, it’s the soaps that bring on the addiction. Women, it seems, are not big on news, business or sports, the recent World Cup being an exception, of course.

Calling The Shots
Is it any surprise then that there are more and more women making these soaps today? For who better to understand the female mind than another woman? Just look at the soap business today and you’ll realise that it’s one big kitty party out there.

Says Anupama Mandloi, head of On-Air programming, Sony TV, "We have Goonj where one of the producers is Anita Kanwal, the director is Leena Yadav and the script writer is Sutapa Sikdar. Even the theme of the show is women-oriented. In the past, we have had several shows where women have produced, directed and featured in women-oriented serials like CATS, Hubahu, Kutumb , etc.

One of our leading shows Heena, once again about a woman protagonist, is co-written by Samidha and co-produced by Raakhi Tandon. Kkusum is written by Bharavi and centres around a woman protagonist.’’

Says TV producer Anuradha Prasad, ‘’Women are ruling the roost — 70 per cent of the credit for evolution and development of Indian TV goes to women. Call it coincidence or whatever, but at the time that liberalisation was happening, women too were coming of age, especially in the metros.

"There was this group of educated Indian women looking for a medium to express themselves — TV was a new and emerging medium and now you can say, they’ve grown together. Indian TV has had the same parallel growth as Indian women, they’ve grown together and complement each other. TV is also a medium which calls for ‘adapt and adept’ formula and women are very good at it. And not just as actresses, but as reporters, producers, directors, scriptwriters and technicians.’’ Anuradha is the Managing Director of Bag Films, currently airing serials like Kumkum on Star Plus, which deals with widow remarriage.

Do women make better serials?