1984 The first TV soap
ON July 7, 1984, the first Indian soap opera Hum Log was aired on the only television channel of the time, the government-owned Doordarshan, forever changing the way Indians would consume mass media. From 70 mm cinema screens to the television sets enclosed in wooden cabinets, the entry of television serials into the drawing rooms of people transformed the way information and entertainment would be disseminated.
Hum Log was the story of a middle-class family. Within a short span of time, Badki, Nanhe, Chutki, and Lajwanti became household names. Issues such as alcoholism, gender discrimination, poverty, superstition, and career prospects were all handled delicately. Indians identified with the alcoholic Basesar and the aspiring cricketer Nanhe. Every house had a Lajwanti suppressed by a patriarchal system. At the end of each episode, the popular film actor Ashok Kumar came on screen to analyse the topic of the day. Audiences lapped up his witticisms and sage advice.
Conceptualised by the then Information and Broadcasting Minister Vasant Sathe, Hum Log was developed in collaboration with writer Manohar Shyam Joshi and director P. Kumar Vasudev and was loosely inspired by a Mexican drama. The serial buoyed the golden era of Indian television with socially sensitive and mature content catering to an upwardly mobile but still struggling middle-class audience. It was soon followed by Buniyaad in 1986, which dealt with Partition; Fauji, which is best known as the launching pad of Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan; the comedy show Yeh Jo Zindagi Hai; Vikram Betal; and Malgudi Days, the elegant serialising of R.K. Narayan’s classic short stories.
In a country riven by divisions of language, caste, class and religion, a common identity was hard to achieve. Television serials, like Hindi film music, vastly contributed to this project of cultural assimilation.
As the economy was liberalised in the 1990s, private channels made their entry and television shows reflected the growing aspirations of the youth with reality and talent-hunt shows such as Boogie Woogie, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and, finally, Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by none other than the iconic Amitabh Bachchan. A prolific list of TV serials came during this time.