Will Ranveer Singh’s sexual wellness brand generate some self-awareness in television industry | Television News
When a new clutter breaking advertisement was launched two days ago that featured Ranveer Singh promoting Bold Care, a male sexual wellness brand, many initially thought it was a spoof on daily soaps or some comical pre-valentine’s day video. But soon enough Ranveer announced that he was not just the face of the brand, but also a co-founder of the company that aims to help millions of men rise to the occasion, pun intended.
The deliberately shocking advertisement achieved its goal of getting Ranveer’s brand instant recognition. But what really grabbed everyone’s attention was the juxtaposition of an A list movie star in a video that was filmed to look like a daily soap. So, while the brand promises to awaken lost passions in Indian bedrooms, the ad itself should serve as a wakeup call for the television industry, which has often faced criticism for its cringeworthy content. As I saw the commercial, I couldn’t help but think about scenes from Hindi TV shows where screenwriters created such inadvertently comical sequences in complete seriousness.
Who can forget Gopi Bahu from the so-cringe soap Saath Nibhana Saathiya. Amongst the many instances of tacky melodrama on the show (including the now famous ‘rasode mein kaun thha’) was an episode where Gopi washed her verbally and psychologically abusive husband Ahem’s laptop. As audiences watched in horror, Gopi scrubbed the laptop with soap and water and then hung it to dry on the washing line alongside other clothes.
However, tech troubles are no patch on the drama surrounding sindoor falling into hairlines. There is yet to be a daily soap that is not heavily invested in streaks of sindoor and other suhaag ki nishaniyan (symbols of matrimony). But as unrealistically as Ranveer’s brother pops a pill, falls on his wife Kishu and ends up satisfying her as they fall to the ground, men in daily soaps accidentally end up smearing sindoor on a woman’s hairline. In the now off-air show Thapki Pyaar Ki, the protagonist is standing in front of the mirror after taking a shower, when her husband does a sindoor slip and slide, making sure his flaying arms get the vermillion onto his wife’s forehead. Incidentally, this was the same show where a gorilla fell in love with Thapki and turned rival to two human suitors.
Such is the power of matrimony on our daily soaps that women hang on kites or drive a scooter to the moon to rescue their spouse. In the show, Ishq Ki Dastaan – Naagmani, the protagonist rides a scooter into outer space, lands on the moon and rescues her husband and child. But this is not all. The same show also featured a husband and wife hanging from a kite as she attempts to save him after he accidentally falls off the terrace. I am sadly not making any of this up.
Though they may be regressive when it comes to portraying women, but soaps are quite equal opportunity when it comes to the nonsensical. So trips to the moon are not reserved for just the women. In Yeh Jadu Hai Jin Ka, the hero takes the ‘chaand tare tod launga’ stereotype a few steps too far. When he isn’t able to pull the moon down using a glittering rope to impress his bae, he drives a car to the moon and then breaks a piece of the moon using a magic wand.
In addition to these leaps off terraces, and intergalactic acts of love, there are multiple shows which delve deep into shapeshifting human beings and the complexity of falling in love with someone whose tongue can grow forked at will. Ekta Kapoor’s textbook cringe series Naagin slithered onto our screens over a decade ago and brought with it evil mongooses, mean peacocks and quite the ecosystem of half-humans.
No discussion on bizzare daily soaps can be complete without the ever suffering Simar and her family in the daily soap Sasural Simar Ka. Oh the things Simar has gone through in her attempts to keep her papad like fragile family together. She almost gets strangled by a curtain when her grandmother-in-law slaps her, battles a shape shifting female snake (yes there was one on this show too), and even turns into, wait for it, a housefly. If only someone had swatted her and ended the agonising show faster.
Sadly there is word limit to this article but there an unlimited number of such examples where characters on television have defied science, logic, and even the limits of fantasy in a bid to get viewership. Daily soaps may last long like Ranveer’s brand promises men will, but sadly they offer little satisfaction. Perhaps watching millions of people instantly identifying the advertisement as a spoof of bad content will finally prompt television channels and producers to course correct and establish higher standards of creativity for the small screen. Kyunki Kishu deserves better, doesn’t she?
