Character sketch of typical Indian TV bahus

on Sep 18, 2013 , 12:58 pm

Heavily embroidered sarees, thick vermillion on forehead and a ghunghat on head, is what the typical Indian TV bahus looks like in the popular shows on small screen.

On one hand where the country is fighting for women rights, on the other we are ignoring the way we are portraying them on the small screen.


The female protagonist always has to have an innocent face, should be polite and most of the time submissive.  Making sacrifices for the welfare of the family and fighting kitchen politics is her only aim in life. It seems that they don’t have a life of their own.

Many shows kick off showing young women dressed in western wears, going to college, living their lives to the fullest but once they get married their entire appearance changes. They are shown all decked up with heavily embroidered sarees along with heavy jewellery.

For example, TV show ‘Sanskaar Darohar Apnoo Ki’ had the NRI female protagonist Bhoomi, who was born and brought up in the US. She was always shown wearing western outfits.  However, she falls in love with an Indian guy and marries him, only to end up wearing sarees and a ghunghat on the head.

If we go by the plots of the shows, the ‘bahu’ has no right to live her dreams or make any effort to make it come true.

Star Plus’ number one show ‘Diya Aur Bati Hum’ has the protagonist Sandhya, who dreams of becoming an IPS officer, but circumstances force her to get married to a conservative family, who are dead against their ‘bahus’ working and she is left with no other option but to let go of her dream and take care of the family.

Though the makers try to show Sandhya’s ‘not-so-literate’ husband is doing everything to make her dream come true, but the entire plot gets lost in kitchen politics.

According to saas-bahu sagas, the typical Indian bahus has to be a silent sufferer and the current track of another popular TV show ‘Saraswatichandra’ is the best example for that.

The female protagonist Kumud was shown to be a confident, well educated, ‘no nonsense’ kind of a woman, who can do anything to keep her and her family’s respect intact.

After being heartbroken in love she is married off to a guy, who beats her up, misbehaves with her and doing anything and everything to malign her, and she is silently accepting it, with a hope that he might end up loving and respecting her.

I don’t understand why can’t the producers be realistic in their approach?  Why can’t they show a courageous woman IPS Officer or a successful businesswoman

There is an urgent need to modify the scripts in these soap operas,where women are depicted as brave and independent.


Earn TimesPoints
Wow the blog : 1 point.
Comment on the blog: 10 points.
Share on Facebook , Twitter or Google+: 5 points
Hide Coin Animation
You just earned Timespoints