The new vamp tale on Indian telly

With a series of new shows on the small screen, the face of evil has gone for a gender change.

With a series of new shows on the small screen, the face of evil has gone for a gender change.

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Bitchy vamps have been replaced by sturdy and stubbled male antagonists.

While passionate Priyanka Kharbanda (Sangita Ghosh) in Ravi Chopra’s Viraasat has to combat her brother-in-law Rishab Lamba (Aman Verma), the youngest bahu and the protagonist of the show Sneha is pitched against her strict father-in-law Mansukhlal Shah in Sony’s Thodi Khushi Thode Gham.

Even in Zee TV’s Kasamh Se, the focus is on the intense love-hate relationship between the protagonist Bani and her husband Jai Walia.                              

Rohit Roy and Sangita Ghsoh in the teleserial Virasat

Sahara One’s latest show Sati Satya Ki Shakti is the story of a rape victim who has grown up to become a lawyer. Intelligent and quick, her rival is the flamboyant and stylish lawyer Siddharth Raichand (played by Sandeep Rajora).

So what is it with the new-found negativity among television’s men? Says Aziz Khan, director, Thodi Khushi Thode Gham: “A woman is the biggest enemy of the other woman. Now all the possible stories on that, including popular one likes the saas-bahu and the second woman, have been done to death. With a strong male character, there is at least some newness on the screen.”

Talking specifically about his show, Khan says, “In Thodi Khusi... Mansukhlal is a typical In dian male who is dominating and believes in male power.

But Sneha being a liberal girl does not want to surrender to his stubborn attitude.” Sans any scheming saas, Sneha is loved by the entire family. “No one opposes her except for her father-in- law and that makes the show different from other family soaps,” says Deepa Parab aka Sneha.

Ravi Chopra, director of Viraasat, has almost similar views.

He feels women-oriented wrangles have been exploited a little too much on the small screen. In Viraasat the script revolves around the power of love between the offsprings of two rival families.

The protagonist, Priyanka’s biggest rival is Rishab Lamba, who happens to be her husband’s (Rohit Roy aka Rahul Lamba) eldest brother.

“It is a male-dominated script, where the protagonist is a strong female character,” says Chopra, adding, “it becomes even more challenging for her to fight a strong male character instead of any other woman from the family.”

Talking about his character, Verma says, “I am going to give all the vamps a run for their money.” While the season of saas bahu soaps is gone and done with, it remains to be seen what impact the mali cious male power has on TRPs.