There are television serials galore where minor girls are married to elderly men or even gods; others depict men marrying twice or thrice, bypassing laws.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, an avid serial watcher, has described such content as “regressive.” “Very often we see in television serials that even today one person has three wives and family members conspiring against each other. Please do not show such things. Such negative things often influence people,” said Ms. Banerjee.
The Chief Minister’s remarks have generated mixed reactions from the film and television fraternity. While many agreed with her, others justified the content saying serials across the country reflected such content. Concurring with Ms. Banerjee, Sahitya Akademi award winner Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay said, “I agree with the Chief Minister on this. Even though I don’t watch serials, I have heard what kind of negative content they show. Such things create adverse impact on the viewers.”
Noted film director Goutam Ghosh, while agreeing on the negative impact of such shows, argued that it is not just in Bengal but all over the country that serials “blatantly display feudal values”
However, Chairperson of the State’s Women’s Commission Leena Gangopadhyay, who is also a noted scriptwriter of Bengali serials, argued that all serials do not show negative contents. “We make serials for the common people and everyone has the right to express his or her personal opinion on them. The Chief Minister has done just that. But it would be wrong to think that all serials show negative content,” she said.
