First there was Mandira Bedi whom nobody knew. She was joined by Kitu Gidwani, whom everybody knew. Both were destined to become prima donnas of the afternoon. Now, after the success of UTV's Shanti and Plus Channel's Swabhimaan (DD1), there is a spate of new daily soaps from other big producers and a veritable deluge of prime time stars: from Arun Govil in Aparajita and Priya Tendulkar and Benjamin Gilani in Itihaas to Raza Murad and Navin Nishcol in Waqt ki Raftar plus many, many morethe daily soaps have become the `in thing' with TV producers and actors. Producers such as the Chopras, the Adhikari Brothers and Ekta Kapoor have shifted focus from the weekly, evening serial to the daily soap opera and quite naturally, some of the biggest stars of Tellywood have followed.

What has suddenly happened? "Daily soaps are more popular than their weekly counterparts and are doing better business too. Look at the TRP ratings and you'll know,'' says Raza Murad, who is now playing a politician in Waqt Ki Raftar ``Waqt.. (DD1) which is telecast at 1.30 pm has surpassed the ratings of serials on prime time slots. Time slots, therefore, should never be underestimated" he adds.

According to Raman Kumar, producer of Zee's daily Raahat, now off air, daily soaps provide greater scope to explore the dramatic complexity of characters for the simple reason that there's time for all that. He cites the example of Raahat, when Anju Mahendru loses her son. "In a serial with weekly episodes, this situation, in all probability would have been chopped mercilessly to a few minutes. But in Raahat we have given the mood five episodes," explains Kumar. Mahendru agrees. "Daily soaps give a certain continuity and depth to the character you are playing," she says. "I'd rather do two daily soaps than many serials with weekly episodes," insists Kumar who made a name for himself with the hugely popular weekly, Tara .Ekta Kapoor, producer of Itihaas (DD1), has a similar point of view. "The characters in a daily soap are definately more believeable. The other advantage is that the audience is in constant touch with what's going on." And it's not just the audience, but the cast, too, gets so much more involved in daily soaps which are shot over a period of days. "I look forward to the shoots," says Murad. Result? "The whole unit becomes a family," adds Kumar chirpily.

The stars are chirping the loudest. Ask Gautam Adhikari producer of Waqt... He calls it the "goldrush". "The one sharp edge that daily soaps have over their weekly counterparts, is the steady monthly income of Rs 25,000-30,000 they offer," explains Jaykar. Whether the income is steady or not, may vary from banner to banner, says Kapoor, but most banners seem to go the steady income way.

Murad is more clear cut in his explanation: "A weekly serial would mean that the artist gets paid for a maximum of four (sometimes less) episodes a month. Whereas in the daily soaps one gets paid for a month at a stretch."What it finally boils down to is the key word competition. "A larger part of the audience that one may lose to other serials in the prime time evening slot can be caught in the afternoons," thinks Adhikari. According to him, since there aren't so many daily soaps (aired mainly in the afternoon) as there are weekly serials, the afternoon and morning slots offer a clear deck. "The daily soaps score heavily on this account," he adds.

Still, everything is definitely not the "God's in his heaven/ Dinner's at seven/ All's right with the world" kind of a situation. Now DD 1 alone runs eight daily soaps. That spells competition and a daily serial is very taxing. Smita Jaykar who is the focus of Raahat feels "Playing a lead in a daily is demanding. It's heavy on not just you, as an artist, but also on your most precious commodity -- time." But she agrees that daily soaps do influence one's popularity, positively. as one is then "constantly seen".No wonder more and of Tellywood is prayinggive us our daily soap.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.