The Indianisation is not merely an aesthetic compulsion but a strategy to expand marketshare, increase advertisers' base and sponsorship, says N Bhaskara Rao, chairman of Centre for Media Studies.

Gone are the dubbed versions of foreign soaps like `Dallas' and `Bold and Beautiful'. They are instead replaced by `Saans' and `Tara' which, despite an Indian cast, are packaged with international themes and cosmopolitan settings.

"It's a convenient reach and positioning strategy too," says Rao, noting, "the shows are India-specific, the target group is focused and the packaging such as to allow big brands to pick up shows for advertisement and sponsorship."

Though the bottomline is commercial, the aesthetics it employs are incidental, says Primila Lewis, author and activist. "The aesthetics are not left out entirely, for if it were sochannels would have been crudely designed."

But some media experts are of the view that there is nothing new or innovative in the commercial imperative of Indianising packages as the trend was inherent even in the 80s and is now being copied by channels to increase their reach and sponsorship.

"The real challenge would come when the diversity of India would have to be packaged and sold through direct to home (DTH) or free of cost, to viewers spread across the country, both in urban and rural set-ups and the dexterity of the channel to convince advertisers of its ability to reach diverse markets through a common platform," says Akhila Shivdas of Media Advocacy Group.

The common practice of these channels is to construct locality within the limits of a stereotypical dominant idiom, say Christiane Brosius and Melissa Butcher, authors of the recently released book `Image Journeys - Audio Visual Media and Cultural Change in India'.

Citing the example of Channel V, they say that this was the firstchannel which created a new audience in India - the youth - and then proceeded to reflect their tastes and attitudes through a visual representation of this audience. The imagery is not fantastically created montages of international stuff but taken from the grassroots presented in a cool, hip fashion.

They also produce a narrative of images rather than words. Even the editing is fast, with the camera angles constantly changing and zooming.

If Doordarshan, despite being a visual medium, is 60 per cent audio and 40 per cent visual, several foreign channels, besides increasing the visual content, have picked Indian themes and events to woo the locals, notes Rao.

According to Lewis, channels like BBC and CNN have not become popular among the masses because they do not have a fair representation in it. The news too is not pertinent to their lives, she says, observing that for a channel to be successful it has to have programmes pertinent to the audience lifestyle.

Another strategy is the use of thevernacular. The use of Indian news readers to establish an "Indian connection", he says, citing the use of Hinglish (Hindi and English) double speak and cult slang.

It was Zee which built the foundation of commercially viable imperatives, indicating from the onset that it would not dilute its commercial imperatives and addressed different segments of audience in an organised manner, says a media analyst.

Though it did not initially have the reach of Doordarshan, there was sharpness in its marketing strategy, she says, adding it even booked space with advertisers for years and in the process built commercial loyalty. Moreover, it not only marketed a product but sold a lifestyle.

Yet another motive behind Indianisation of these channels, opines Rao, is the imperative to go global. "Globalisation not merely reaches new audiences but also incorporates these channels into a broader global market."

The Indianisation strategy is therefore able to serve both localising and globalising aims, contributing to anexpansion as well as a standardisation of cultural diversity, say Brosius and Butcher.

In fact, the initial resistance faced by these channels was due to their "alien culture" and the viewers dislike of it. It was due to their active resistance that they were forced to Indianise eventually, she says.

The big question is whether these "Indianised" channels are actually representing our country's diverse and disparate concerns in the name of Indianness or is it merely a superficial experiment with Indian diversity? )