Pro-development teledramas for national uplift

A M S Achala Abeykoon

Obviously starting from Dimuthu Muthu directed by D B Nihalsinha, tele–drama has been one of the most popular television genres. Kadulla, Kande Gedara, Dunhida Addara, Dhadubasnamanaya, Pitagamkarayo, Gamperaliya, Gajaman Nona are some of the teledramas that are still fresh in our memory. However, the popularity of these realistic tele dramas began to decline with the introduction of dubbed Indian daily serials, also known as soap operas, to the Sri Lankan TV viewers. With this change, we began watching three or four Indian serials and their local carbon copies during prime times.

What is a soap opera?

Soap opera which is different from tele dramas, are dramatic serials intended to entertain. At its beginning, in USA, there were radio soap operas and their immense popularity led the way to TV soap operas. The word ‘soap opera’ was initially invented by the American press in the 1930s. Since 90% of them were commercially sponsored by household cleaning product manufacturers, the word ‘soap’ has been generated and ‘opera’ refers to its tendency to be larger- than –life and excessively melodramatic.

Local ‘Mega Series’

Although, we cannot see any of the Indian soap operas or their local ‘carbon copies’ in our TV channels today, their influences are highly visible in present local daily serials because now every day, we can watch about seven to eight locally produced tele serials, popularly known as ‘mega series’ in almost every TV channel not only in nights but also in daytime. However, the quality, story line and the character depiction of these serials which can neither be called as tele dramas nor soap operas are highly questionable.

Effects of Mega Series

It’s evident that the plots of most of these serials are similar to each other because many of them are based on typical love stories between a rich boy and a poor, beautiful girl or a rich girl and a poor talented boy. Same main actors and actresses are visible in all the daily serials. And, of course, there is a comic character with exaggerated acting, most probably who would be a servant of these rich families or a father of the poor family. Therefore, most of these stories, although they come in different names, are far from reality and less serious. Obviously, these light serials create a low taste among the viewers making them very poor in their media literacy ability.

Moreover, studies on media effects have found out that this type of entertainment focused broadcasts contribute little of a positive nature toward the development goals of third world countries because they encourage anti-development behaviours like consumerism, and create frustration among the poor and disadvantaged viewers in reaching material goals.

Pro-development soap operas

Thus, my opinion is that the popularity of these daily serials and their influence can be positively used for the national development, as successfully practised in other developing countries. From 1980s, most of the developing nations like India, Mexico, China, and Brazil have looked for possibilities to disseminate development communication messages through soap operas. As a result, the genre of ‘pro-development tele-dramas or soap operas’ came into existence.

Mexican experience

Pro-development soap opera is a melodramatic serial broadcast to entertain and to convey subtly an educational theme to promote development. This conception was originated in 1974 in the Mexican Commercial TV network. The first pro-development soap opera was aired on Mexican television during 1975-76, named as Ven Conmigo (Come with me) intending to promote adult literacy. During its telecast, one million of illiterate Mexicans have enrolled for adult literacy. Next Mexican pro-development soap opera was Acompaname (Come along with me) which was designed to promote family planning of Mexicans. It has been reported that during this period half a million Mexicans have visited government family planning health clinics.

Indian experience

Later, this Mexican experience has been used by other developing nations to disseminate development related ideas among the people. One such successful attempt was the pro development soap opera created by India in 1984, named Hum Log (We People). It has been designed to promote the fair and equitable treatment for women, family harmony, the adoption of family planning practices, and national unity by using edutainment strategy. It has been found that an average of 50 million people watched the average Hum Log.

To be continued