Tara is helpless when her father repeatedly gets violent and abusive with her mother. Every time he hits her, Tara runs out and rings the doorbell to save her mother from the torment.
Tara is a character in a new adolescent TV drama series on DD’s National network. The show,AdhaFULL(Half-full), has been created in collaboration with BBC Media Action (BBC’s international NGO and development communication arm) in partnership with UNICEF. The 78-episode series is a clever whodunit where three teenagers in a make-believe town called Badlipur solve one case per week.
The show tackles important issues that plague our nation. For instance: child marriage, sex-selective abortion, female foeticide, dowry, fair skin and beauty myths, stereotyping of women and girls, sexual health, financial dependence, higher education for girls, school drop-outs, sanitation, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health and gender-based violence.
The series will be supported by a radio show where RJ Nikki, who plays the role of the school teacher in the series, will host a chat show that will feature celebrities from the world of entertainment.
The aim, producers say, is to engage and entertain young Indians between the ages of 10 and 19. It also seeks to reach out to parents. “India is home to 243 million adolescents,” says UNICEF’s India representative Louis- Georges Arsenault. “About one-fifth of the world’s population in the age group of 10to 19 lives in India.”
Catalysts of change
He says, “It is imperative that they break their leash and spring forth to succeed. We need to support them on their rights, walk with them, and partner them in their aspirations for them to be the next generation of leaders and catalysts of change.”
Radharani Mitra, National Creative Director and Executive Producer, BBC Media Action, says young lives and aspirations are about the 3Cs: curiosity, challenge and creativity. “They are willing to re-evaluate, and take chances, but often feel limited. Through the TV series and its characters, we want to engage our young viewers and their parents in a journey of change, so that they feel they can negotiate and work with the 3Cs.”
Devika Bahl, consulting producer for BBC Media Action, says AdhaFULL will prove that challenging themes, engaging stories and endearing characters are not mutually exclusive. The show has a soul and a heart beating for the young adults. “It is witty, vibrant, palpable and very real,” she says.
For Harsh Mayar, an award-winning child actor, his modest upbringing as a son of a small-time tent dealer in Delhi, helped him get into the skin of a street-savvy survivor and orphan. “I feel nervous when I go to a five-star hotel as I am not used to that kind of place, attention or glamour,” he says. “Even my English is not good. I could well imagine what an orphan would feel given my life’s experience.” As for his character, Harsh says, “There are intensely emotional scenes in the series and doing them really drained me as the character is very demanding.
Joining the cast is 12-year-old Neelanshi Singh, who plays Tara, a school-going student who found it awkward at first to deal with domestic violence on screen. Then there’s Ahsaas Channa who plays Kitty, the elder of the trio in the series, who found the silence and prejudices surrounding menstruation not easy to deal with. But standing up to pressures of child marriage from her on-screen family and performing stunts on the sets was liberating.
Producer Sudhir Sharma feels it is not just another run-of-the-mill show whose success is determined solely by TRPs. Although the goal is to gain wide viewership, the intent and purpose behind AdhaFULL has already made it a special one. He says, “Superb concept, high on entertainment, full of meaningful content, what else you can ask for from a show?”
AdhaFULL, Doordarshan National, 7.30 p.m., every Friday and Sunday.
Three teenagers come together in a make-believe town called Badlipur to solve
one case per week
