MUMBAI: BAG Films' afternoon soap Kumkum - ek pyaarasa bandhan has beaten the veterans of the soap genre with its unprecedented success in the mid-day slot.
Following a timing change (from 3.30 pm to 1 pm) in November 2002, the soap's ratings have catapulted to over six, claims the production house. "In only three months Kumkum crossed the 5 TRP barrier and couple of weeks later, two out of four episodes have 6+ TRP, while the remaining two hover around 5.9. This has been the trend for the last three weeks and this week i.e. on 28th March the TRPs are 7+ and 6+," says the shows creative consultant Sharad Raj. The total market TRP for Kumkum in the week just ended stood at 4.19.
Kumkum has overshadowed heavyweight afternoon shows like UTV's Bhabhi and Shagun to claim four spots in the top 50 shows in C&S households in the week ended 22 March. While Kumkum debuts at number 23, Bhabhi, the closest rival in the afternnon band, comes in at number 33. Both grapple with the emotional bonding and the consequent conflicts that arise out of "bhabhi - devar" (brother in law - sister in law) relationships.
Raj says Kumkum has the potential to be a 300 plus episode, given the interesting twists and turns the plot is going through. Sumit, the devar, who is now KumKum's husband, was engaged to his girlfriend Renuka, who will go on to become a vamp of the serial and make life miserable for Sumit and Kumkum. Apart from this, the Wadhwa family who was already planning Kumkum's marriage to her college friend, Vishal will also not rest in peace.
As a strategy, Raj says the team of writers is shuffled regularly to bring freshness to the show. Launched on 15 July 2002, Kumkum is unique in that the satellite telecast rights of the serial will revert to the production house a year after it completes its run on Star Plus.
Raj points out that sceptics initially ran down the look of the show (designed by Omung Kumar with light design by Binod Pradhan) saying that a long and wide corridor would be wasted on television. Kumkum , on the other hand, proved that depth could be effectively used on the small screen as well.
