October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

FASHION AND STEREOTYPES IN HINDI SOAP OPERAS By Jagriti Pande under guidance of Professor Dr. Shalini Sood

OBJECTIVE

The paper aims at tracing the visual code prevalent in the popular media of

television. The soap operas in India are like staple diet with heavy viewership base

in women audience. In country where the prime time slot 8-11 is reserved for

television viewing only, the effect of soap operas on the consumers is remarkable.

Many stereotypes are formed and broken through this media. The report also aims

to investigate the causes and effects of certain cliché prevalent in the image

construction of the characters in these soaps.

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

INTRODUCTION

Since the invention of photography, film, video and television, we have rapidly

shifted from a written culture to a visual culture. (Smelik, n.d.). Visual Culture

encompasses everything from what is signified and what is signifier. Every viewer

sees it with its own context. 600 million viewers in 146 million homes with a

television, 623 channels and a market estimated to be worth 329 billion rupees that

is the size of the world’s third largest market, after the United States and China.

(Lecuyer, 2013)

SOAP OPERAS IN INDIA- HOW IT STARTED

It was the year 1984 when Hum Log the first ever soap opera launched in India and

changed the television industry forever. It was followed by popular soap operas

like Buniyad in 1986.

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

PHOTO COURTESY – www.tribuneindia.com PHOTO COURTESY

www.bollywoodlife.com

The television in those times was state sponsored Doordarshan and the nature of

the shows was majorly educational. (Munshi, 2010).

CHARACTER REPRESENTATION IN EARLY YEARS OF SOAP OPERAS

In terms of fashion as can be seen from the images the clothes were simplistic with

no exaggeration. Buniyad however borrowed from Pakistani and punjabi

influences as it was based on the tribulations of a Punjabi family post partition .

It was in 1990 after the satellite TV entered India that a new milestone was

reached. The shows like Tara, Junoon, udaan captured the dreams and aspirations

of the urban woman who was not domesticated but worked confidently. But the

stereotypical image of modern women was potrayed with western clothes, dark

makeup and woman shown to have affairs and smoking cigarettes. By 2000, the

audience wanted a complete change in the television viewing experience.

The launch of 2 serials “kyunki saas bhi kabi bahu thi” and kahaani ghar

ghar ki that prime time viewership became what it is today. It started the “saas-

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

bahu” genre. (Munshi, 2010) .The characters of Tulsi and Parvati became iconic

along with the negative characters as well. All these characters relied heavily on

creating an image using particular kind of clothes and makeup of stereotypical

good and bad.

The trends followed in these kind of shows can easily be summed up with the

contrasting representation of antagonist vs the protagonist

THE IMAGE OF PROTOGONIST

The female centred shows typically projected women in fully clad Indian attire

with sindoor and mangalsutra. The makeup was soft. This was also in tune with the

joint families in which the women lead character lived. The popularity of the

image donned by the lead characters can be gauged by the fact that the

acccessories and clothes worn by these chracters were an instant hit with the

masses.

Parvati ,tulsi and prerna

Image courtesy – www.rediff.com

THE IMAGE OF ANTAGONIST

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

The concept of serial “vamp” or the protagonist started from these soaps onwarnd.

The make up of these characters was usually loud with skimpy dresses. The over

exaggeration of makeup was seen in acccesories ranging from bindis to tatoos.

The vamps were often projected using the stereotypes associated with sexual

overture. Yet no one can deny the popularity some of the trends gain from these

shows including the komolika style blouse , ramona sikand’s bindi etc.

WHAT AFTER THE AGE OF SAAS BAHU SAGAS – MORE SAAS BAHU

SAGAS WITH REGIONAL CHARACTER

With the wrapping up of both the above shows and launch of new channel

Colors of vicom 18 in year 2008, there has been a surge of new genre of soap

operas which are heavily regional in nature. Not to forget the fact that kuyuki itself

was perhaps the first TV soap to bring Gujrati culture on television. But what

followed was an overdose of regional ethnicities in TV soaps.

The list includes Balika Vadhu , Ye rishta kya kehlata hai , Diya aur baati ,

Love marriage ya arranged marriage with Rajasthan as the backdrop , Bandini ,

SaraswatiChandra , Khichdi, Sarabhai vs Sarabhai , Sathiya,Chanchan with large

Gujrati family. Though Gujrati and Rajasthani families are the most commonly

shown , there are others thriving too on the regional culture being very important

and apparent part of the tv show. But what are the means in which all these cultural

nuances are fed into the minds of audience. The language and regional accent is

one. But major contributor undeniably is the visual culture followed in these shows

corresponding to their dresses, jewelry and makeup. What we see today in soaps is

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

the stereotypical good bad embedded with the regional dresses. So an antagonist

female character set up in Gujrat will wear a choli with loud makeup.

Also it becomes extremely important to highlight that all the shows in recent years

show the protagonist as struggling between the maintaining her personal and

professional life. However mostly the shows loose this premise midway. Its

interesting to see how the character is shown to be modern and savvy but in a

completely traditional set up.

Though we may say that the excessive loud makeup cannot be seen much

still it will be wrong to say that clichés are given away with. The only difference

perhaps is in the way they are represented now. The fact that these shows are today

serving to the middle class audience where women actively participate in the

economics of home, the only and little difference perhaps has come because of it.

With observation of current day’s soaps it can be seen that:

CLOTHES A MEANS TO SHOW REGIONAL AFFINITIES

It’s surprising how these soap operas are so elaborate to create the images

which are very much regional in nature. A female character of a Rajasthani family

will thus be fully decked up in traditional ghagra choli with the jewelry indigenous

to Rajasthan. This is common to not just any one show but to almost every show

that is based on a particular ethinicity. It can be easily exemplified with the way

Anandi of popular hindi soap “Baalika Vadhu and Ammaji in laado .

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

Toral rasputra as anandi. Pic courtesy-www.rediff.com Ammaji a haryanavi character played by meghna malik in naa aana iss des

laaado

Every nuance of the region to which the character belongs is followed in

these soaps ranging from colors, drapes, jewellery, customs etc.

IMAGE OF HEROINE AND VAMP NOW

It’s really surprising to see that the lead character whether based on any particular

community or not almost invariably wears ethnic or Indian clothes only. She may

be a doctor, a lawyer or working in an MNC, every female character is always

shown wearing ethnic clothes. Salwar kameez if unmarried, sarees or traditional

dresses if married, elaborate wedding trousseau on her wedding.

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

The lead actress in soft makeup and ethnic dresses The vamp louder makeup

Image- Bollyandhollynews.wordspress.com IMAGEwww.theceleb.info

Equally contrasting and sorry is the portrayal of vamps in these shows. Though the

make up and over accessorizing has toned down a bit makeup is still a tad darker.

Also mostly these women are shown skimpily dresses.

ETHINIC HAS BECOME STYLISH

These shows today have elaborate wedding and festive sequences where the

characters are seen wearing designer ethinic dresses. The market today is filled

with Akshara style suit, Anandi style sarees. Even the costume jewelry being worn

by them is a major hit in the bridal market.

HOW ARE THESE SHOWS WORKING AMONGST

THE AUDIENCE

At times you might feel that when there is such a hyperbolic representation of

chracters, who it is that actually watch and believe in such images. The answer not

only middle class audience or rural audience but also the immigrants from India.

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

THE CHARACTER STILL STUCK IN TRADITIONAL SET UP TO THE

EXTREMES

The representation of complete Indian women has become a major feature like

never before. This could be understood by how Robinson puts it

“People do not just live the modern or in the modern. They struggle with it , query

it ,quarrel with it and try to get around it and sometimes even out of it “

(Munshi, 2010)

In India it is a time when contradictions built into local moral, world of family and

social life are negotiating that process between modernity and tradition when

modernity, often times appear to be negotiated tradition.

Also pointed by Patricia Uberoi

“It’s a time when goals of individual autonomy and freedom of choice and action

are seen to be constrained by a social ethic that demands the deferral of individual

self-gratification on behalf of the family”

(Munshi, 2010)

OSTENTATION IN NEGATIVE ROLES

In the article “reading in detail” Schor contends that ornamental has been

associated with feminine duplicity and decadence. Ornament often been dismissed

as being trivial, superficial, lacking in substance, irrational.

Also pointed out by young

“In past, Individuals were seen to have an identity apart from goods they possessed.

In the present era, one’s identity is defined in terms of image that one creates

through one’s consumptions of goods, including the clothes one wear “

(Negrin, 2010)

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

THE GENDER ROLES

In families in which the gender roles are largely traditional, television may tend to

serve to reinforce such gender roles. In this way television certainly plays a role in

the construction of gender roles. All viewers have several options regarding

gender images: to accept them, to disregard them, to interpret them in their own

way; and to reject of ready-made meanings .There are a variety of women

characters such as “grandmother types, married women, marriageable women,

spinster types and young women and these various representations of women in

the soap makes it more interesting for women to watch especially, if

they can relate to certain characters in the show. In the contemporary

soap-opera, the women character is considered to be a “strong women”. Soaps

include women who are not only capable in the personal sphere but are also

capable in the business world (Prerna in Kausati Zindagi Ki). These “strong

women” are admired by the viewers (Dr. Aaliya Ahmed, 2012)

THE REGIONAL FACTOR

Identity, as defined by James Cote (2006), is the perception of self that are due to

the combined knowledge of one's experiences. He defines social identity as the

placement of an individual in the social structure (Sherring, 2013)

Social identity theory suggests that members of a specific group gain their self-

esteem by identifying themselves strongly with their own group as well as by

contrasting themselves from the other groups, also known as the out-groups

(Sherring, 2013)

There are thousands of immigrants who are able to stay connected to their country

through satellite television. This makes them feel connected to their roots. Many of

them hope to pass on their culture to their children as well by exposure to these

soap operas. To these people soap opera is their only ticket to go back to their

country and relive their traditions.

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

Not only this there is a lot of movement taking place interstate. Many of the shows

project the Gujrati and Marwari community who have in reality moved from their

native places to other states and abroad. These shows in a way gives them a chance

to associate with their community and countries. These people vie these shows not

for the story but for the relationship they develop with the characters.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that physical image representation plays an important part in

the storytelling of soap operas. We Indians though are advancing towards a

modern age but yet do not want to give away our roots yet. Though the visual code

shown in the soap operas seem a little exaggerated, yet it is an important part of

how it signifies meaning to the audience

October/ 2013

National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

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National Institute of Fashion Technology M.design Department (2013-2015) NIFT DELHI

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