New Delhi: Another star exit, another media circus, another blame game between the television channel and the star and the only one who loses anything is the FAN. Unfortunately this time the sequence of events has hit the only serial I used to watch, Karan Singh Grover starrer 'Qubool Hain'. For 12 months every day I have sat in front of my TV at 9.30 pm, laughed with the lead pair of 'Qubool Hain'- KSG and Surbhi Jyoti (SJ) as Asad and Zoy and cried in their turmoil and made them a part of my life.
On 26th December, I woke up to sensational articles where Zee TV claimed that KSG, the 'bad boy of Indian TV' has been sacked from the serial, due to unprofessionalism. Slandering of the star to the lowest depths followed, with the actor refuting the claim by citing ill-health. I don't know who is right and who is wrong and frankly I don't care anymore. As a fan I feel let down, because I was watching the serial only for a closure to Asad and Zoya's love story, the next steps in their union and the realization of their destiny.
Sadly this has become the state of Indian Television. All serials start off brilliantly with immense promise and somewhere in the middle they get lost in the maze of TRPs, cheap publicity and making what sells. 'Qubool Hain' started off as a drama that aimed to destroy misconceptions about the Muslim culture, to make a statement against orthodoxy, going beyond appearances and portray a changing generation that challenges stereotypes. I started watching the serial because its main protagonist, Zoya Farooqui was a jeans wearing, very modern women, raised in the US, yet very close to her culture and roots. The story moved on with her clashes with the very orthodox, Asad Ahmed Khan and how she changed his conservative thinking and start of their love story.
However, somewhere down the line the serial became lost in multitude of vamps, warring families, crude language and events that in real life are unfathomable. Slowly it lost its creativity and that eventually drained the morale of the leading cast, leading to exit of one good actor after the other. And then came the final blow with KSG, the main crowd puller and heart-throb of millions deciding to call it quits/sacked by the channel. I am not a die-hard KSG fan, having never seen him before 'Qubool Hain' but as Asad Khan, he was unmatched.
All the parties - channel, production house and the actor, I am sure are at fault. 'Qubool Hain' will still continue but has lost its essence. Even today if I watch American serials like 'Friends', 'X-files' or for that matter the earlier Indian serials on Doordarshan - 'Farman', 'Fauji', 'Kashish', I get a smile on my face, relieving those memories. This cannot be said for Indian TV today, it is so far removed from the reality of an emerging young generation, urban or rural. In which household, do women only gossip, manipulate or scheme, all wives have no desire to be career oriented, men are mama's boys and evil seems to overpower good intentions continuously and repeatedly? Where are the moral values of right and wrong, reflection of aspirations of modern women, changing generation of men and a multitude of other issues that affect lives of millions in these shows?
Till Indian Television comes out of this rut of daily soap operas, driven by TRPs - this cycle of incomplete stories, exit of actors, changing loyalties of audience and the muck that follows is unlikely to end. I wish both Zee TV and Karan Singh Grover all the best, hoping against hope that some lessons are learnt by the industry.
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