Krishi. Siddarth. Sagar. Sindurah. Roshni. Pragya. Rachna.
Seven names. Seven characters that anyone who is an aficionado of Indian television series would recognize at first glance. One would be forgiven for assuming that the ’60s and ’70s were back.
The golden era of Indian cinema saw it accepted far across the oceans and in the brick and corrugated film houses all over post-Independence Nigeria.
Up till the time that some of us were born and raised, Indian movies were still very much the rage. Who didn’t want to be Mahd? Who didn’t want to be Amar, Akbar, Antony? Who was not scared shitless by the snaky femme fatale Nagina?
The movies had a huge influence on Nigerian entertainment at the time: our own actors and musicians wanted to be them so badly. There were blatant remakes of Indian movies and quite a few songs were ‘Nigerianised’ off their soundtracks.
It took concerted efforts by a new crop of movie makers to create a proper Nigerian film industry that in 20 years has created superstars and truly Nigerian films that are now appreciated world over.
But while we’re jubilating and throwing around reports that say we’re the largest film industry in the world or that we’re nearly overtaking Bollywood (depending on the sweet mouth of whoever is telling the story), the Indians are back.
This time they’re not competing with The Wedding Party or October 1 at the cinemas; they’re using a medium that reaches more people than the silver screen – television.
We as a people have always had a palate for television dramas. The early 1990s saw the demise of several soap operas that were Nigerian – Checkmate, Cock Crow At Dawn, Mirror In The Sun and others. Instead they were replaced by Mexican telenovelas – La Mujer De Mi Vida, Catalina and Sebastian et al.
These series were acquired by independent producers from production companies anywhere in the world and simply thrown on local TV stations who often imagined that they only existed to merely sell airtime in 30 and 60-minute blocks.
The emergence of Telemundo and Zee World as dedicated television channels where one could watch these shows met with delight by the audience.
And why not? The operators of the cable satellite network where they air were smart enough to create stand alone channels that currently get more viewership that Channels TV (that touts itself as being Nigeria’s best television station for the past nine years) does. Even between the two of them, Zee World is proving to be the preferred choice.
Here’s why that is a problem: as it is our custom, we do not mind losing our own identities to keep up with a trend. The most widely watched TV station here is not popular because it shows mainly Nigerian content; it’s most likely that it shows Indian soaps twice a day.
To paraphrase ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, if Nigerians in Nigeria are watching Indian movies, who will watch Nigerian films?
Of course there have been a handful of made-in-Nigeria series, the morbidly long and boring Tinsel for example, I think it’s safe to say we won’t get any push from the folks at DStv whose clear strategy is to profit off the television choices of their market.
The way the Indian movie craze fizzled out is the same way this millenial frenzy ought to be smothered by Nigerian producers, actors and television networks; not out of malice but out of a desire to create a longer lasting impact on television and film.
It has been repeated at several forums, that it is difficult to put a local series on air. Be that as it may, we owe ourselves a chance to change the narrative. Film-makers achieved that and forced Africa Magic to create 13 different channels, with about nine showing Nigerian content.
It’s about time for television producers to create such a dedicated platform for Nigerian TV drama. Our people have shown that if the show or movie is any good, they will support it.
Now, imagine if there was a station that shows only Nigerian television series. Will that not be fantastic?
Instead at 7pm, we hurry back to our houses to find out what Siddarth has done to his family this time.
Some things are not done simply for financial gain. Television programming is one of them. Such things are done for the culture. Now is the time to do it.