| ashu |
Posted
on 03-Mar-03 06:43 AM
Ekta Kapoor's serials big hits in Nepal
KATMANDU: Indian tele-serial maker Ekta Kapoor has managed to find a captive audience in Nepal as well for her family dramas.
Nepalese females, ranging from school students to housewives, who have access to satellite prefer to watch serials beamed on Star Plus over local soaps.
Indeed, four of the most-viewed programmes are Ekta Kapoor's. This is the finding of a survey conducted in the four urban headquarters of Nepal by Asmita, a Kathmandu-based women's publication house as well as media and resource group.
The survey on "the impact of television on women" began in June-July 2002 in four urban centres where viewers have access to cable TV -- capital city Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Pokhara and Nepalgunj.
The findings and recommendations of the survey are to be released this month.
The women interviewed said they watched television two to three hours a day, mostly during their leisure in the afternoon and evening. They spent most of their television viewing time watching Hindi tele-serials.
The biggest draw was Ekta Kapoor's "Kasauti Zindagi Ki", watched by 64 percent. The next three were "Kyun Ki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi", 47.25 percent, "Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki", 47 percent, and "Kahi Kisi Roz", 37.75 percent.
Of local programmes, a resounding majority - 41.25 percent - watched news on the State-owned Nepal Television and current affairs programme "Hijo Aaja Kakura".
Sony had a viewership of 6.5 percent while the other channels together, like BBC, CNN, Discovery, Zee, Star Cinema, Aaj Tak, Doordarshan, National Geographic and the rest had only 17.5 percent viewers altogether.
The women said they watched Ekta Kapoor's serials because they were impressed by the way the women protagonists behaved. The heroines gave priority to their family, trying to please husbands, in-laws, children and other members of the family and made all kinds of sacrifices to keep their families happy.
Manju Thapa of survey group Asmita said: "Though some of these role models have a successful career, like Prerana of 'Kasauti Zindagi Ki', who is a high-profile journalist, the women watching her said her life outside her home didn't impress them. They had no aspiration to emulate her in that way."
However popular her serials are, Ekta Kapoor has not escaped criticism for her portrayal of women, something that critics in India have slammed as well.
"We find the serials have a very negative and retrogressive effect on women viewers. They don't encourage women to push forward and do something on their own initiative," said Thapa.
Thapa said Nepal Television has started producing serials - and they too imitate their Hindi counterparts, portraying women in the same stereotype roles.
She spoke of "Purush???", a serial recently started by Nepal Television, where the heroine gives birth to a daughter after six stillborn babies. Her mother-in-law and rich husband start conspiring against her. The husband is encouraged to marry again to get a son. He tries to seduce his personal assistant whose father is in the debt of his company and needs medical treatment for his paralysis.
"Earlier, Nepali serials had no theme song. Now they do. That is a direct influence of the Hindi serials. So are the plots and dialogues," said Thapa.
The dialogues, she said, in both Hindi and Nepali serials, foster gender discrimination and are unconsciously adopted by the viewers.
The ambience of the popular serials is that of affluence while the Nepalese viewers are mostly from lower income groups or the middle class.
"That is why they don't choose the positive element, like professional excellence for women, thinking it to be only accessible to the rich.
"But they identify with the human emotions and relationships and feel that they can emulate the self-sacrifice part and keep the family happy," said Thapa.
Many of these women would like to do something more constructive in their leisure hours only if they knew what to do.
"'But no one shows us what to do', they say," Thapa pointed out. "Our recommendation is to involve them in meaningful social activities that will take housewives outside the house for some time and help them create a social identity."
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IE420030302045855&Title=Features+-+People+%26+Lifestyle&rLink=0
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| noname |
Posted
on 03-Mar-03 05:47 PM
Very interesting! Ashu thanks for bringing it to our notice. I applaud the effort of Asmita to venture in this area.
When I was in Nepal, I hated soaps so much that I never watched even one episode. Now, I wish I had. I am interested what makes our AADHA AAKASH so crazy about these never-ending soaps.
On top of that I am interested what change has these soaps been able to inject in our society? With introduction of Zee and Star TV, I have noticed that our women have become more health conscious – aerobics and morning walk have become their obsession. But, what about effects of those soaps?
So far, I was simply thinking that they are successful because of their base in 'high class society' – aspiration of every middle class women (This is my superficial assumption and personal observation only. I am not sure whether these soaps are really based on rich, urban family background or not!). This conclusion I am drawing from my experience in watching Hindi movies. All of the successful movies these days have a high-class, rich and successful protagonists instead of a 'hero' giving lecture about 'GARIBI' to a rich father – most probably '2 NUMBERI' - of heroine and so on (as was the trend with MITHUN DA's movies!).
I am interested; do any of these soaps portray their protagonists from ghetto, not-so-well dressed, not-speaking-English, or so on?
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