logo

Hi Folks,

When I had an event with filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor, 3-4 years ago, in the SF Bay area, he was asked the question (at that time the films he had come out with were HB/Rockford/Bollywood Calling), what was his biggest competition….without battling an eyelid he said Ekta Kapoor’s soaps.

That was the first I had heard of it since I had left India, when Hum Log/Buniyaad/ etc had just about concluded and never was (actually still am not) much of a television person, the only time I switch it on is to watch tennis and news.

The reality of Saas Bahu also did not hit me at home in Delhi, since my mom has never been the Sas Bahu type (we did not live in a Saas bahu setting in Altamount Road, Mumbai, it was more Mom, Dad and sis), all the Saas’s , etc, were in faraway Delhi, plus dad was into sports, playing the violen and mom has never been a TV person, she’d rather be amongst people or socializing. But when I stepped out of my DDA colony house in Delhi (my new home after I had left Mumbai) and stepped out to the neigboring homes and visited from the US, the reality hit me and hit me hard….Nagesh was damn right!!

Saas Bahu soaps was all over India. Then I went to visit friends in Dubai (where I spent 3 years with Ernst & Young) and guess what….Saas Bahu was all over Dubai…and the trend continued. Ditto for UK, then Canada, interior US, why even the India Community Center Gym, here in the Bay Area, where I will be going as soon as I complete this write up.

The extent of Saas Baahuuis’m continued to go with me. The person whom I had trained under as a Chartered Accountant, growing up in Mumbai, had now relocated to Andheri (W) also in Mumbai. Wanting to meet up with him I called him from my Juhu hotel “Where’s your new office, as in what do I tell the auto?” Prompt was the reply (and just for the record, my former boss, is one of the most non filmi people and continues to be that way) , “The office is on Fun Republic Lane, right next to Ekta, the Saas Bahu waali’s Balaji office and …if you still can’t find it is also across from this Yash Raj studios, I think.”

You think!!! Yash Raj. You know!! Balaji and Saas Bahu and you are not filmi…something about this did not add up (at least for a self obsessed Yash and Adi Chopra film buff like me)…..then it sunk in….of course, Saas Bahu was not only Nagesh’s worst nightmare, but probably every filmmaker from Bollywood!!!, it had gone where “Eagle’s Dare,” into every house and every heart of anyone PIO (Persons of Indian Origin for the uninitated), of course most did not admit it or rather grudgingly admitted to watching it.

Then came a bigger bolt. Last Nov, 2007, I visited Northwestern University in Chicago, their undergrad class wanted to do an event with SAAFA and an actor who will be playing the leading role in my debut film, was in the country visiting her brother. She had done a couple of films (Bhoot and Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi) and both had done reasonablly well in the box office, but more because of the opportunities, environment and scope, she preferred to work in television in India. Anyway she was agreeable to visit Northwestern and accompanying her was American Indian actor, Deep Katdare, from the ONLY film in the American Indian genre (Mira is studio) that had made money commercially, AMERICN DESI (Deep had played the leading guy in that). So we start the event in Northwestern and I am doing the introductions to the actors and BOOM!!! Bhoot, was a little vivid in memory, Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi….yeah some rememberances more for a song called “Na Main Amitabh, Na Dilip Kumar…Na Hum Kissi Hero Ke Bachche”……but then one hand of a kid (probably 15) went up when he looked at the actors on the stage, he asked the female actor…….Aren’t you the woman from Saat Phere on Zee TV and then Ghar Ek Sapna….the actor was shocked positively….Ghar Ek Sapna is not even shown on Television in the US, yes it was and is available on the internet and some remote cables……the actor later informed me,”Vivek, I am shocked at the super awareness these American Indian kids have here in snowy Chicago…..,” I was like, Saas Bahuism had spread it’s tentacles here too.

Then as I got deeper into my “anti festival” and “mass appeal” “consumeristic” frame of mind, for films, arts and my own film perspective, I realized a stupedous achievement which I can perhaps attribute to Ekta Kapoor or to the Indian psyche…..

HATE IT, HASH IT, DISLIKE IT AND TRASH IT

SAAS BAHUISM WAS HERE TO STAY THAT I SAY

CAUSE EKTA HAD WON THAT ULTIMATE MASS APPEAL BATTLE

THAT WHICH AFFECTS THE BOX OFFICE AND CAUSES A RATTLE

THAT WHICH WINS OVER THE MASSES AND ALIENATES THE CLASSES

THAT WHICH INCREASED THE FILMMAKERS DESIRE AND CAUSE COMPETITORS TO PESPIRE

AND MORE POWER TO SAAS BAHUISM CAUSE ALTHOUGH CREATED IN JUHU TARA ROAD

IS NOT LIMITED TO TO JUHI, TARA OR AMOD

IN FACT IT’S POWER IS FELT IN DUBAI, TORONTO, CHICAGO AND LONDON

CAUSE WHILE THE PARTY CIRCUIT BASHES IT WITH ABANDON

THE MONEY GENERATED FROM SAAS BAHUSISM ALLOWS A WHOLE GENERATION TO ACT WITH PASSION!!!!

(ok I admit the above was bad rap, I’ll stick to writing and accounting)

Sincerely,

Vivek”yes I don’t like a lot of it, but long live Saas Bahuism” Kumar