It’s all about her

Amarjot Kaur

While television, with its ‘sanskaar-fuelled’ TV shows, defined an era of ‘K’ serials, its formula-driven ‘saas-bahu’ approach spared no room for either intellectuals, or the youth to relate with. The nauseatingly ‘purist’ stereotype of the traditional Indian woman had the youth running to greener pastures—Hollywood TV shows and of course, the web series.

Finally, the internet generation is not being portrayed as rebels without a cause, or mindless romantics. For women, especially web series like Ladies Room, Man’s World, Girl in the City, and Confessions: It’s Complicated mirror the concerns of an urban, confident and independent woman.

Hail! The second most dreaded F-word, feminism, reflects the concerns of young women, who are neither waiting to get married just as they turn 25, nor are they subservient or submissive. Here’s the making of fiery tales about fiercely feminist young Indian women. For starters, we recommend you check out Blush Channel’s Unblushed by Amitabh Bachchan rooting for woman rights in the video titled, Ab Samjhota Nahi.

“Blush as a channel on YouTube was started as the voice of women who are on the crest of change and are evolving with the changing times. The idea behind these videos was to be an honest voice of Indian urban and progressive youth. We chose to be responsible. There were so many topics which needed to be addressed in a strong voice,” says Ruchir, the content head at Culture Machine, the parent company of channel Blush.

That why most of these channels remain focused on the urban youth and not the rural areas, Ruchir shares, “Right now the internet audience is the urban youth, not so much of the rural folk. However, we are planning to expand and make the show reach a wider audience.”

Web series Man's World by Y-Films features Kiran, a man who wakes up to a world run by women, where men face injustice and struggle collectively to break free. “With The Man’s World, our motive was to acquaint people with the idea of gender equality,” says Nikhil Taneja, head of development, Y-Films. He sheds light on the second web series by the channel, Ladies Room, that he says was written, and directed by women. “It took us five months to actually write these series where women talk about everything right from virginity, abortion, periods,” he says.

Meanwhile, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee, actor, director, scriptwriter (of web series Ladies Room and Girliyapa’s How I Raped Your Mother) shares that it was Maneka Gandhi’s stance on marital rape that prompted her to pen the webisode. “That Maneka Gandhi stated India has so many social customs and culturally it won’t be possible to make a law against marital rape, I thought that this issue must be addressed,” she says.

Padding the satire with dark humour, she says that it was imperative to make the subject as hard-hitting as possible. “The topic is serious and humour always works to address issues that are otherwise hard to articulate. Also, satire and dark humour as a style of comedy to address pertinent issues wasn’t happening in India. My characters reflect the reality of urban, educated, and independent woman.” Girliyapa and Blush, which are actually from the producers of TVF and Being Indian, created a separate channel about women. Besides, Confessions: It’s Complicated was launched on Facebook. One such series that made it to the television is the web series Girl in the City that was also telecast on TV channel Bindas.

amarjot@tribunemail.com