By Munni Banerjee
1. Christians, who? When Christians are shown on TV serials, they are depicted in negative light as people who drink a lot and party too much. But believers don’t do that in reality. There should be proper representation of believers’ families. In SAB TV’s immensely popular Tarak Mehta Oolta Chasma which aims at having people of all faiths in its cooperative housing community, no Christian family is shown though they have Muslims, Parsis and a Sikh. Also non-believers need to know that there are believers who don’t wear a cross or don’t have a Christian name. The viewers should be imparted the basics of Christianity.
2. No Gospel films are shown. No serials are made on Biblical topics. There are numerous Hindu mythological but not one serial on the life of Jesus Christ, Biblical topics or Gospel films. Doordarshan allows certain slots for Christian programming but private channels think that it is risky to invest in Christian programming.
3. News channels are not sympathetic to Christians. Atrocities on Christians aren’t often shown. The good work done by churches is hardly shown. Most news channels are now masala entertainment channels or gossip channels. You have late-night news programmes with astrological forecasts instead. These programmes that encourage superstitions are against Biblical principles.
4. The saas bahu saga does more harm than good. These serials instigate conflict in society. If we showed the family bonding instead, a positive message would be conveyed. Also some shows in the name of upholding family values actually disrupt the family. In Thoda Hain Thodi Si Zaroorat Hain on COLORS they showed a girl working in a call centre as the one who is disrupting the middle-class family values after she enters the home as the bride of the younger son. It would have been nice if they showed the call centre girl imbibe family values and the family members getting more broad minded. Instead they ended the serial with the call centre girl running away with her boss and the younger son divorcing her to marry the sister of the older bride instead. Why are shows which are supposed to uphold family values promoting divorce?
5. Christian festivals aren’t shown at all. Resurrection Day and Christmas aren’t really celebrated. But Hindu festivals are always blended in to the plot of the serials all around the year.
6. Reality shows that are hardly real. You have Axe Your Ex where you are encouraged to take revenge on your lover on national TV. In Maa Exchange, mothers are exchanged. In the Big Switch kids are exchanged. The producers of the shows say that these shows make family bonding stronger. In Super Stud-School of Flirt the person who is the best flirt wins. In MTV Splitsvilla the participants find the ultimate girl of their dreams by choosing from 20 girls by putting them through gruelling ‘tests’. The girls battle stress, politics, exhaustion, fear, bitchiness and bad television to be the chosen one and avoid humiliation of getting dumped. The girl who has been rejected will leave the show and move back to her home. In Truth, Love and Cash partners are swapped. In Emotional Atyaachar the partner’s fidelity is tested through a sting operation where a detective is hired and his/ her task is to get physically intimate with the so-called committed person whose fidelity is being tested. Instead of educating the youth about marriage and the responsibilities associated with running a family, programmes on live-in relationships and gay relationships dominate the TV scene. It’s sad that swayamvars happen on TV. Choosing your partner should be a personal matter. On Bigg Boss you hear the worst kind of abuses too. Reality shows are hardly real- most of them are made up.
7. Kids are abused. Indian television is the wrong place for children to be in. Kids are abused on reality shows. Also the shows disrupt their schooling and education. Many child actors do their homework on the sets. This is very stressful for them. Fame at a tender age is also not good.
8. Sundays aren’t holidays. Actors are over-stressed. There are reports of actors fainting on the sets. Shooting is carried out on Sundays, too. Therefore, Christian TV personalities are forced to miss church.
9. Indian TV is ruled by TRP. Though the way of measuring TRP has numerous pitfalls the Wednesday TRP results are taken as the Gospel truth. Accordingly, shows are altered. Shows that aren’t doing well are dropped. Often even good shows are axed just because they don’t do well on TRP.
The problem is also compounded by the fact that there have been no serious efforts at injecting professionalism into the church’s media forays. To most churches, media simply means a camera that records their pastors’ sermons. Media offerings are mostly CDs, DVDs of Sunday sermons.
Unlike in the US, no church in India (not even the cash-rich Catholic church) has attempted to present the Gospel or Christian values through any professional films. Outreach ministries still depend on dubbed versions of the most-popular film ‘Jesus’ and ‘Dayasagar.
The scene in Christian TV channels in India is also similar. Since cable service providers demand exorbitant money for including them in the bouquet of channels, most Christian TV channels find it difficult to find funds for quality programming. They run on shoe-string budgets.
Christian TV channels in India are run like family fiefdoms. Either they are run by a ministry or a church or an individual and consequently only programmes favourable to them are telecast. If an individual owns a church, his wife, children, aunt and father-in-law end up as anchors, dubbing artistes or editors thus effectively quashing any attempts to bring in professionalism.
