Shoma Munshi?s Remote Control focuses on news, soaps and reality shows, and explains how these genres project a ?distinctively Indian identity?
Remote Control: Indian Television in the New Millennium
Shoma Munshi
Penguin
Rs.499
Pg 353
In the 2011 film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, when the three male characters of Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol are drinking at a bar and making fun of the signature tune of Doordarshan of the pre-satellite TV days, youngsters would not have connected with it. Because, post-liberalisation when the skies opened up to satellite television, the production and consumption of TV underwent a sea change. From two Doordarshan channels to 600-plus channels, TV, argues Shoma Munshi in her follow-up book to Prime Time Soap Operas on Indian Television, is ?the single most powerful and dynamic agent of change in India today, while also being the country?s most popular and accessible form of entertainment?.
Her new book, Remote Control, scrutinises three forms of programming?news, soaps and reality shows?and explains how these separate genres project a ?distinctively Indian identity?. In examining the growth of India?s television sector?TV reaches 133 million or 60% of households in the country and is steadily growing?it is important to recognise, writes Munshi, ?the speed at which this took place?. She also tells us, after extensive research and talks with all major players in the sector, that growth rates in rural areas far outstrip those in urban areas??the growing importance of regional media is leading domestic and international media and entertainment companies to invest in these markets?. She also notes that digital television, too, has started making inroads.
In this book, which takes as its starting point the year 2000 when two new shows, Kaun Banega Crorepati and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, took the TV space by storm, she analyses the programming of the decade and the impact it has on society. ?Many new channels have emerged since the 1990s, programming genres have been transformed, and the choice available to audiences now is bewildering in its array and scope. In studying these genres, I also look at how our everyday reality shapes television?and how television, in turn, shapes us, and the stories it tells us about ourselves.?
First, 24×7 news. Munshi talks about the emergence and rapid growth of 24×7 news channels in India, ?an evolution that has made the country the largest market for television news in the world?. Quoting LV Krishnan, CEO of TAM Media Research, she writes, ?India is still largely a one-television home market, where each member of the family wants to see something different… Thus, 24/7 channel audiences extract whatever they require from the news. In the few short years of its existence, 24/7 television news has brought non-stop theatre to everyday realities in India… The three Cs?crime, cinema and cricket?are all followed in a vociferous manner.? So if news sees itself as existing for its constituents, it will, argues Munshi, ?inevitably investigate what its viewers want to see and then produce that?.
She lets Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India, have the last word on 24×7 news: ?People may rubbish it as drama, as reality TV. But Indian TV news industry is still a toddler who sometimes runs, sometimes trips. If people in positions of authority are completely deaf to your grievances, there is an accessible alternative now. You can call your local news channel and they will come to you. The officials listen if it is on TV.?
Munshi devotes a chapter to another hugely popular format on TV now, reality shows and how ?reality shows serve a basic sense of the popular: people watch it, are affected by it, and incorporate it in some ways in their everyday lives?. But she dedicates a large portion of the book to soap operas ?because they form the lion?s share of audience viewing in the general entertainment space?. So from the K soaps of the early part of the new millennium to the soap stories from mid-2000s when socially relevant themes and lives of smaller towns and rural areas were brought to the small screen, Munshi examines why despite ?protestations and criticism over the years by analysts and activists about how ?regressive?popular soap operas are?, viewers continue to watch them with great gusto.
Capturing the rapid strides on Indian TV, across technology, programming and consumer needs, Munshi, most of all, tells us why TV appeals to audiences: ?… because television speaks to us in this personal, intimate way is one of the big reasons why we keep watching it?.
Sudipta Dutta is a freelancer
