Indian television, in general, and Indian soaps, in particular, have for long kept Urdu and Hindi speaking expatriates glued to their TV sets. Regarded as a good source of entertainment by many, it is also considered a way to stay connected to their native places by many expatriate houses. Pehla Plus, the digital service provider in the Kingdom offering premium Asian TV channels, has over 70,000 subscribers across the Kingdom. “Subscribers include over 35,000 Indians and the rest are from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,” Faheem Ahmed, marketing and sales representative, Pehla Plus said. Pehla Plus offers different bouquets depending upon accessibility to the number of channels. Pehla Basic offers 27 basic entertainment channels including four Indian drama channels and is priced at SR71 per month, while Pehla Silver offers 35 channels which include five Indian drama channels and costs SR141 per month. Pehla Gold is prized at SR216 and offers 48 channels. Ahmed said Pehla Silver is the most popular among subscribers as the package has more sports and news channels. A decrease in clientele has been noticed due to their shift to illegal decoders and receivers, he said. “People can now get these paid channels through DSL and illegal receivers,” Ahmed said. Other receivers ranging between SR550 to SR750 are now available in the market. These are connected to a computer with DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) at one end, and to the Television set on the other. The setup provides accessibility to worldwide channels. Some are opting for the Dish TV or the Tata Sky TV receivers. Tata Sky is a DTH (Direct To Home) satellite television provider based in India. The receivers or the set-top box's are brought from Bahrain, India and other places, and are tuned to frequencies of the required channels. Presently, the service is accessible in the Eastern Province only. “We brought a Sky TV receiver last year from Bahrain; it is comparatively cheap than other services,” said Shahid Nizaam, an Indian expatriate in Jeddah. It is great to see Indian soaps which help to stay connected to our country, he said. Sabiha Arif, a Pakistani expatriate, never fails to watch her favorite Indian soaps. “The exaggerated characters, especially female vamps that are always up to some mischief are fun to watch,” she said. “'Saas–bahu' (mother-in-law and daughter-in-law) clashes and extra-marital affairs are an important ingredient in these soaps,” she said. And to think that these ‘high-drama' serials have an all-female viewer-ship may be wrong. Ubaid, a 13-year-old Pakistani boy, said TV soaps are popular among his friends. “We have a good laugh when we discuss the caricatured characters,” he said. “A single man/woman getting married several times is portrayed in these serials is unbelievable,” Ubaid said. Indian soaps are finding popularity across language barriers as well. Meena Ashraful, a Bangladeshi housewife in Jeddah, cannot understand the language used in the dramas, but finds pleasure in watching them. “A tele-soap has all requisites of a good entertainment package,” she said. There are many who think otherwise. “It is a waste of time to watch these never ending soaps,” Ayesha Fatima, an Indian student said. “Plastic surgeries, survival from deadly accidents, amnesia, and identical faces are so frequently shown in these serials which seldom happen in real life,” she said. Meri News, an online Indian newspaper, recently published “101 reasons to hate Indian drama serials.” It stated them as responsible for “corrupting the minds of youngsters through their foolish and ridiculous story plots.” Ekta Kapoor, creative head of Balaji Telefilms, has been sued twice on the basis of producing unethical, untraditional and misleading soaps. “These soaps have nothing to do with ethics, culture and have a negative impact on society,” said Tooba Tahsee, an Indian mother. “All serials have similar story lines like extra marital affairs, illegitimate children, characterless women and family conflicts,” she said, adding that she never allows her daughters to watch serials. “I now prefer reality shows to the monotonous soaps,” she said. In April 2008, Afghanistan's Parliament passed a resolution seeking to bar private channels from broadcasting popular Indian TV soaps on grounds of being un-Islamic and un-ethical. Meanwhile, psychologists believe that media portrays social, cultural, and ethical structure of the society, and hence should be shown in positive light. “Women may become revolting and dominant after watching such serials. Evil is projected so beautifully that one feels attracted to it,” A.F. Khan, a psychologist said. He added that viewers get accustomed to unethical misbehavior which is shown frequently in serials. __
