Unfortunately our television producers have been banking on women who continuously shed tears in dramas for a really long time in order to get ratings. Many of the actresses have accepted openly that they get paid for crying, there are others who think it is their USP and there are also those producers who have no qualms accepting the fact that making women cry gets them the ratings they want.
Since this tried and tested formula sold many dramas, now some of the producers have started using the same tactic in morning shows as well. All over the world morning shows are motivating and inspiring because many people begin their day with watching these shows. In Pakistan however our script writers, whether they are writing script for a drama or for a morning show, are quite convinced that making people cry early in the morning can be just as beneficial for the viewers as it is at night (pun intended!).
A host does not necessarily have to be an actor because hosting is a completely different skill which should technically not involve acting but all the morning show hosts nowadays are actors tuned into hosts hence they make the most of their acting skills in morning shows as well. These women who we have seen crying in dramas so often are now using the same “skill” in morning shows as well in the hope that all those women who are sitting at home and watching their shows will think about how miserable their lives are and they will be able to relate to all the melodrama! In my opinion these actresses-hosts are not doing anyone a favor.
In some of the videos which are circulating on the web nowadays actress Sidra Batool was invited by Sadia Imam solely because she wanted to bid farewell to her before she got married like she was going on a war! While marriage is an emotional time for a woman, the fact is that most girls like getting married and enjoy their ceremony as well. When will we stop promoting these clichés which make girls look like a qurbani ka bakra?
I have heard that in remote villages when someone dies there are women who go to that house and wail irrespective of whether they know that person or not. Honestly speaking, some of our modern and educated morning show hosts nowadays are practicing the same behavior on live television every other morning. The background score and the entire “script” is meant to make the environment gloomy because somehow the content heads of these shows strongly believe that the viewers love to see women cry!
The saddest part is that apart from these staged sob-fests even when there is a tragedy, there are hosts who ask the victims’ families questions which are designed to make them even more emotional. When they finally start crying, the camera zooms in which is highly inappropriate and which also goes to prove that these people are not invited to the shows so that the hosts can help them get through this tragedy but only to get ratings at the expense of their tears.The people responsible really should know better than to make a mockery out of people’s tragedies.
How many people would much rather start their day with something that makes them smile or is inspiring instead of watching men and women cry on screen? Don’t you think it is highly inappropriate that our media openly shows its insensitivity towards people’s real problems by using their tears for TRPs?