With the astrology calendar predicting only 15 good mahurats for marriages post Diwali, there's a rush to finalise dates and book venues.
With the astrology calendar predicting only 15 good mahurats for marriages post Diwali, there's a rush to finalise dates and book venues.
And the Indian television industry too has joined the rush to marry off their tele-soap stars on screen.
Bairi Piya, Uttaran and Swarg on Colors, Pavitra Rishta and Choti Bahu on Zee TV are all roping in the audiences in their grand wedding plots while Zee has a wedding sequence coming up in Choti Bahu.
ADVERTISEMENT
The reason
The serials have been airing discussions on gifts to give, outfits and jewellery to don and so on. It is almost as if a member of your family is getting married and you have to participate in the preparations.
Says Sukesh Motwani, fiction head of Zee TV, "For audiences, a marriage is the most gratifying plot element.
u00a0
They identify with the joy, celebration, drama that happens universally in any marriage and see their favourite characters go through all these emotions.
Also, the viewers have become more interested in seeing cultural details in weddings and enjoy the smallest nuances when two families meet."
Money matters
The trend of showing opulence in weddings is not new. Daily soaps like Amanat, Saat Phere, Betiyaan and Mehendi Teri Naam Ki got the audiences hooked. And they did wonders to the channel's TRPs. Rakhi ka Swayamwar raised NDTV's TRP ratings to 8.4.
Motwani justifies the reason behind showing lavish and expensive weddings, "Weddings on a grand scale bring out the viewer's aspirations and helps them connect with the ongoings.
Also, if the family in the serial is not facing any hardships, showing extravagance in a wedding is acceptable. Audiences love watching bling and expensive lehngas on the dulhan, than rationalising the cost of the wedding."
However Ashvini Yardi, the programming Head of Colors, also adds. "Wedding sequences help peak the interest of the audience, however, they cannot be force-fitted to raise TRPs. Only if the storyline asks for a wedding, will a wedding be seen on the show."
Creating hype
While the wedding season is blooming on the small screen, the channels are busy promoting it. They are endorsing these weddings to an extent where even the viewer becomes a part of it.
Zee TV's Pavitra Rishta's Savitha Prabhune, who plays the protagonist's mother in the serial, actually went to housing societies in Worli, Dombivli, etc, with printed wedding cards!
Explains Yardi, "A wedding is a big event, even for a TV serial, and the actors getting married are a part of audiences' everyday life.
u00a0
It is important to give a TV wedding its fair due, as it usually helps in giving the story a new turn and adds a twist, while breaking the monotony of the soap.
Keeping this in mind, a wedding in a show gets all the attention that it deserves."
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
