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The Story of How Sooraj Barjatya Made Indian TV Sanskari Forever

Indian audiences love family dramas and birthday boy Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Hum Saath-Saath Hain’ started it all! 

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The year was 1999. Sooraj Barjatya’s film Hum Saath-Saath Hain released with much fanfare. It was Sooraj Barjatya’s return after Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994), the astounding hit that made the Rajshri scion a man of enormous clout. On his birthday, here’s looking back at his sanskari journey, which started with a remixed version of the Ramayana with a star-studded ensemble, that no one could say ‘no’ to, not even Salman.

Indian audiences love family dramas and birthday boy Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Hum Saath-Saath Hain’ started it all! 
Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Saath-Saath Hain made TV viewing a family activity (Photo: Twitter/@HooriNoori)

When released, it was a huge hit, albeit not like Barjatya’s previous monster, but it did good business all over. And without anyone’s notice, it brought attention to the good old days of films that drove morals home, and made good human beings out of us.

This was also the time when Star TV, Rupert Murdoch’s Indian GEC wing, was licking its paws. It was preparing to launch an attack on Indian audiences, that would change things forever. The channel was planning to launch Amitabh Bachchan, the mightiest star of Indian cinema, in his twilight years, as the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati, the jazzy Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Indian audiences love family dramas and birthday boy Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Hum Saath-Saath Hain’ started it all! 
Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati has something for each member of the family (Photo: Twitter)

In the new millennium, television was witnessing the first generation of globalisation, and TV as a hardware, was penetrating the smaller towns and the rural belt of India. In most families, TV graced the drawing room, providing an easy access for the entire family. The family still consisted of grandparents, extended relatives, and the concept of nuclear families was just gaining prominence. In such a context, KBC cooked a broth that the entire family could enjoy, together. So, the questions were formatted in such a way that everyone could answer at least one question. If sports catered to youngsters, there was one question related to mythology, so that the elders felt important. If questions on fashion made the young daughter happy, the mathematics puzzle would make the geek son jump in joy. It was shaped like a Hum Saath-Saath Hain version of a quiz show, a meal the entire family could enjoy during dinner.

Shailja Kejriwal, one of the minds behind the new programming, told me in numerous conversations how the response was a big surprise.

Nobody expected it to work this way. We were great fans of Mr Bachchan, but when KBC launched, we were not sure how viewers would respond to the superstar on their TV screens. We were hoping for the best, but it was a big, pleasant surprise.
Shailja Kejriwal

Amitabh Bachchan was back to being the darling of the masses, and the rest, as they say is history. Along with KBC, there was another show that quietly launched itself late night. Titled Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, it was about Tulsi, the daughter of a Brahmin married to the scion of a business family, and how she grappled with her new realities, in a new home.

Indian audiences love family dramas and birthday boy Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Hum Saath-Saath Hain’ started it all! 
Smriti Irani as Tulsi in a promotional still from Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi

It was a far cry from shows like Tamas, Buniyaad or Saans, that more or less catered to a niche audience. As television sets penetrated the lower strata of the economic section of society, it created a huge chunk of a new audience that stood colossal in comparison to the old set of audiences that owned TVs. This was a viewer base that created the demand for a new kind of content, that is watered down, spelt out, and can be easily understood even by the section that has hardly enjoyed the light of literacy. Kyunki…, with its setting in a joint family, and melodramatic overtures, turned into a sensational hit, and soon, Mihir and Tulsi’s love story became the talk of the nation. The show was such a massive hit that producer Ekta Kapoor, launched another show three months after Kyunki…, titled Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, with more or less the same texture of joint family values, à la Barjatya’s screen family. Kahaani… and its Parvati turned out to be a success too, though Kyunki… ruled the roost.

Indian audiences love family dramas and birthday boy Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Hum Saath-Saath Hain’ started it all! 
Promotional still from the Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan starrer Hum Aapke Hain Koun

It was like the curious case of 1994 when Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Aapke Hain Koun brought back family audiences to the theatres in the age of home video. The influence of Hum Saath Saath Hain too reached far and wide. Kyunki and Kahaani’s success started the dream run of Ekta Kapoor’s production house Balaji Telefilms, and soon, she had dozens of shows running across channels. Her success was so gigantic that all production houses and channels tried to replicate her success with the same kind of shows, and some of them succeeded too, gaining from the age without reason.

That is how television in India changed its course, and entered the phase of what we widely call ‘saas-bahu sagas’. Sooraj Barjatya’s sanskars made Indian television programming go through a sanskari metamorphosis, that seems irreversible. The next time you hate or love a saas-bahu serial, you know who to thank!

(The writer is a journalist and a screenwriter who believes in the insanity of words, in print or otherwise. Follow him on Twitter: @RanjibMazumder)

(This story was first published on 9 February 2016. It is now being republished to mark Sooraj Barjatya’s birthday.)

(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)

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Topics:  Salman Khan   Ekta Kapoor   Sooraj Barjatya 

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