Anitha Kaluvoya
A common habit among most of the Indian families is watching soap operas in the evening as one of the best time-pass-activities. People from different religions of India like Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, and Jains etc., all of them enjoy watching different language soaps irrespective of their religion and culture. That is why; soaps have become part and parcel of most of its viewer’s lives. Most of the soaps are featured around Hindu characters and families. Minorities have less importance and are very rarely seen as the centre of the story, even though these minorities occupy 15% of India’s population. High amount of importance is given to the Hindu culture and customs on television serials when compared with minorities. The cultural and religious practices of these minorities are also seen very rarely on the small screen. This paper aims at examining the portrayal of minorities in Telugu soap operas in relation with culture and characterization. This is an analytical study throwing light on how much importance is given to minorities in Indian television’s soap operas with a special focus on Telugu serials. Focused group discussions have been conducted with 60 participants who have been purposively selected from the city of Hyderabad to meet the set objectives of the study. The study reveals that the portrayal of minorities in soap operas is mostly negative and stereotyped. They are mostly portrayed as criminals, terrorists or people having links with mafia. This kind of portrayal of minorities on small screen is influencing majority to think negatively about minorities.
PDFShare this article
Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism received 205 citations as per Google Scholar report
