Loosing the plot

—Ekta Kapoor, producer, Balaji films

The days of long-winding soaps are not over yet. More than a decade has passed but television entertainment continues to thrive on overstretched stories. The reason is simple. The bottom line of entertainment business is dictated by healthy rating-delivery ratio. And when ratings and revenue drives entertainment, it is hardly a surprise that shows that become popular go on for years, finite stories that are successful get stretched beyond logic and stories that begin on promising note but don’t deliver are twisted. Even a few shows that stand out in the clutter suffer similar fate.

Way back in 2003 when two of her dailies - Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki - were successful brands, Ekta Kapoor had told this writer that emotion is essence of storytelling while relationships make TV work. Elaborating further, she added, “In serials character is king, story is secondary. Sometimes the story helps character/s become strong and when characters become popular, story takes backseat.” But there is a way to tell a story, she added. “Begin with small problems before you open the main story,” she revealed. “Then you bifurcate and by the time you have reached about 100 episodes your story is over. So you start with another story connecting past with present, as characters dictate new developments and movements.” Ekta

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