Balaji | iDubba's Blog

Imagine one fine day you switch on your favourite serial and you can’t recognize any of the characters or you are not able to connect with the story! Well I am sure this might have happened with you. Right? So what is this concept all about? It’s supposedly known as the “Leap Factor”, it might be similar to “Fear Factor”. Just Kidding. Let’s take a dig at this concept and try to find out “Does taking leaps helps the shows gain back TRP’s?”

When a popular serial takes a generation leap not many serials are able to recapture the flush of success enjoyed before it. But this has not stopped the Leap Factor trend and it’s catching up with the serial makers. Normally the reason for a leap is that a particular serial is not doing well at the Box Office…ohh for television it’s known as TRP’s. Television Rating Points – TRP is the criterion that indicates the popularity of a channel or program and this data is very useful for the advertisers.

Lets find out the serials that have taken a LEAP and managed to gain more TRPs –

Uttaran, This is a TV serial was aired on Colors Television Channel and in the first six months the show revolved around two small girls Ichcha and Tapasya who were from totally different social and economic background. But soon the show took a 10-year leap Both Ichcha and Tapasya turned into adults. And recently the show took another leap of almost 20 years which is showing Ichcha and Tapasya’s kids all grown up. ‘Pavitra Rishta‘ took 18 yrs gen leap when a misunderstanding between Manav (Hiten Tejwani) and wife, Archana (Ankita Lokhande) is beyond repair. TRP ratings have been very positive for ‘Pavitra Rishta‘ and the Leap effect has worked really well for the serial.

Phulwa was thought to be one of the biggest shows for Colors channel, but it did failed to rake in high Television Rating Points (TRPs) and then soon they were gearing up for a ten year leap. As they say “When the going gets tough, time leap comes to the rescue”. That’s exactly what happened to yet another serial “Chhoti Si Zinndagi“. This show was all set to go ahead by 10 years. The most recent example is Kya Huaa Tera Vaada, as the story of Pradeep Singh and Mona Singh a young couple who live in Mumbai with their three children. The story goes on taking may be the smallest leap on television of 6 months. After this leap Pradeep realizes and finally confesses his love for Anushka to his family and plans to break his and Mona’s marriage. Kya Huaa Tera Vaada has shown a slight improvement in terms of TRP’s (from 2.2 to 2.4 since last week) you can check out our TRP talks post for the ratings.

This topic cannot be concluded without talking about Sony TV‘s and Balaji’s ‘Bade Acche Laggte Hai‘. It has been very popular with the audience and has a very loyal base of fans. You can read more about it in our previous post “Is ‘Bade Ache Lagte Hain’ heading for a leap?” However, in the recent times it has seen a dip in the TRPs and that has led the creatives to take a few drastic measures. And there were rumours that there might be a leap soon. There was a lot of discussion on Social Media about this event, many were of the opinion that Leaps in serials at times takes away the essence of the show. The audience who regularly follow the shows end up connecting with the characters and the story, and Gen Leaps do take away that connect and most of the times resulting in losing the fan base.

On the other hand in terms of creativity one can argue that in some cases Generation Leap is a must when there are child artists (Uttaran and Chhoti Si Zinndagi) and hence Leap is a must.

So what is your view on this Leap Trend? Do you think this factor affects the loyal fans? Does this create a huge impact on TRP’s? Looking forward to your thoughts on this unique topic.

Happy “Leap” Viewing.

Since it’s inception TV soaps are known to target only home-makers, but not any more! With soaps like “Bade Acche Laggte Hain” on Sony and “Parichay” on Colors this might change (and it’s already changing) very soon.

Recently these two soaps have grabbed our eyeballs (yes, we do not watch any other soaps on TV :D). This is what we have observed –

These shows have dared and been successful so far in catering the audience of age group 25+ Males in addition to the usual 35+ Females, which is the usual benchmark for any Indian soap opera show.

My only question– Was this intentional? Did Ekta actually gave this a thought (that she can hack the minds of nomads like us)? Or is this because youngsters like us are not getting anything worth to watch?

Well it will take some time to really understand the true reason behind this. So why am I talking about this today?

Well, I might have never touched this genre but was compelled when my 30 year old married brother mentioned it last night that even he watches these 2 shows on TV every night. I was shocked. Why? Coz like us he hates all other soap operas.

Coincidentally both these shows have been produced under Ekta Kapoor’s banner of Balaji Telefilms, who is undoubtedly the queen of Indian soap operas. “Bade Achhe Laggte hain” which was launched a little earlier than “Parichay”, has Saakshi Tanwar and Ram Kapoor in the main lead. The show has been in lime-light because of the extraordinary storyline where Saakshi who is in her early thirties and Ram who is in his early forties get married for the sake of their families and then the show depicts their struggle to adjust with each other. Also how they both start developing affection for each other. The show entails a hilarious bickering between these two which is the most interesting part to watch as many couples in the same situation will be able to co-relate themselves.

“Parichay” was launched in August which has Samir Soni playing the male protagonist as Kunal Chopra, who has lost his interest in life due to his failures and continues to lead an indifferent life. Life takes a major u-turn when he loses his brother in a bomb blast on the day of his wedding and he is forced to marry his deceased brother’s fiancé, Siddhi Kunal Chopra (role played by Keerti Nagpure). The story has been given very typical treatment but the role essayed and portrayed by Samir Soni is what keeps the viewers glued to the show. The show is a major hit and has already beaten some of its competitor shows in the same time slot on other channels.

Both the shows have lead couples with awesome chemistry and that is one of the most compelling reasons for millions of viewers across the country to get hooked to these shows. Either they will create a niche for them and will be one of the few shows that cater to a larger audience. However we also feel that if they continue to be in the same league they will survive otherwise if they introduce the regular drama/ or not required turns then they will also fail with the new created audience just like any other soap opera shows in India.

Are we going to see more of such soaps targeting youth?