Are Indian soaps finally coming of age?

Hyderabad: The new soap Laut Aao Trisha is moving into territories yet uncharted by Indian serials. While the plot, a remake of a Spanish show Donde Esta Elisa, is about a missing girl, it touches on the shades of grey of the main characters, gay themes, twisted sub plots, extramarital affairs, youngsters doing drugs at parties etc. — all quite new to Indian TV audiences.

The daughter of a billionaire goes missing from a party and during the course of investigations, the skeletons from the proverbial cupboard comes tumbling out. Unlike regular saas-bahu serials, Laut Aao Trisha is quite modern and bold. Mother’s don’t have heart attacks when they see their daughters making out or their son smoking, the costumes are realistic and the actors, Bhagyashree, Rajeshwari Sachdeva and Eijaz Khan, do not play regular run-of-the-mill characters.

Talking about the show, Eijaz Khan, who plays ACP Kabir who is investigating the case of the missing girl, says, “The audiences are seeing everything that took place through my eyes.”

In the Spanish original, the cop and the kidnapped girl’s mother end up falling in love.Will Bhagyashree play his love interest later on in the show? Eijaz says, “I do not read the script from beforehand. I come like a blank slate and after reading my scene I do whatever is necessary. The show is technically driven and is being portrayed meticulously on par with reality. I do not yet know whether I’ll be playing Bhagyashree’s love interest.”

Talking about the various sub-plots in the show, he says, “We were not even aware of drugs during our times. But recently, while I was discussing with my cousin I was made to understand that all these things do exist. The generation and times have changed. Teenagers have acess to all this. The show will tell us that we can’t look away from all these things; instead get educated, acknowledge and get empowered… especially teens need to learn”.

Opening up about the serial’s bold theme, Bhagyashree, who plays Amrita Swaika, Trisha’s mother, says, “Bold in Bollywood means showcasing scantily clad actors or portraying sex. Here it is about incidents. For example, so many crimes happen within a family and we remain tied lipped. But Amrita  will go to any extent to find her missing daughter. Her outlook towards life changes, she is hell-bent on getting the criminal punished.”

In the Spanish show, the cop and Elisa’s mother end up falling in love, but there is no happy ending for them. Will Amrita and Kabir share the same fate? “I cannot disclose much about it.” While Amrita, the show’s only goody-two-shoes character, is the lead, her sister-in-law Lavanya, played by Rajeshwari Sachdeva is the more interesting one so far. A successful business woman, she doesn’t have time for her college professor husband and finds his work trivial. She also isn’t guilty about having an affair with her brother’s best friend. And she is a modern mother who doesn’t think the world has come to an end when she catches her teenage daughter kissing a boy.

Talking about her meaty role, and this interesting show, Rajeshwari says, “While addressing a particular issue, we need to present it authentically. These explicit issues may make viewers uncomfortable but they all are aware of the facts. They cannot deny that these things do not happen in society.”
“The serial is an adaption of a Spanish show but we are keeping in mind the emotions of Indian audiences too. Smooching etc. is shown as something that does happen… we are trying to keep the human touch intact but nothing vulgar.”

About Laut Aao Trisha reflecting the truths of today’s society, producer Bhairavi Raichuru says instead of sensationalising  issues, they just want to potray things that regular people are having to deal with in society today. Issues like not really knowing what your spouse or kids are up to, extramarital affairs, drugs and homosexuals pretending to be straight due to  fear of social stigma are things many are dealing with in real life.

“Almost 70 to 80 per cent of this soap has been conceptualised from the Spanish show. But we are keeping the emotional Indian connect of our audiences in mind.” says Bhairavi.

Talking about the duration of the show, she adds, “We have a very finite script and we will see whether the show ends in a year or not. We will run it until it goes smoothly. We will not stretch it unnecessarily.  The show has just begun and I am happy that the audiences like it. It is too early to count the TRPs, but we are keeping our fingers crossed as we have chosen a different genre, indeed very real one.”