Streaming the alter-ego, notes

Notes

1. Balaji Motion Pictures has a track record of producing successful low-budget films such as Love, Sex Aur Dhokha (2010) and Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010), as well as establishing lucrative film franchises in the erotic genre like Ragini MMS (2011) and Kyaa Kool Hai Hum (2005). [return to p. 1]

2. The case of Reliance Jio is somewhat unique in this regard. As a MegaCorp which first entered telecom business first and then unleashed a massive platform ecosystem (Athique and Kumar 2022), its predatory pricing launched in 2015 created the Indian streaming market. But it remained a content aggregator platform until recently; only now, it has declared an enormous content slate of films, web-series and mini-originals (Frater, 2023).

3. Doordrashan and All India radio are India's Public Service Broadcasting services, which were previously operated under a single entity. Doordarshan primarily focused on television broadcasting, while All India Radio focused on radio broadcasting. This separation aimed to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and better cater to the evolving media landscape by allowing each entity to focus on its respective medium.

4. In Indian English, the term "serial" is used to describe a recurring television program with episodic content, often corresponding to what is termed a "mini-series" or "soap opera" in American English.

5. Balaji chose not to start its own TV channel and kept producing shows for all the major TV channels beginning with Star, whose own trajectory into the streaming space has been discussed elsewhere (Singh and Kumar 2023).

6. A joint family, also known as an extended family, is a traditional family structure in India where multiple generations—such as grandparents, parents, children, and sometimes aunts, uncles, and cousins—live together under one roof. This arrangement often includes shared responsibilities, finances, and decision-making.

7. Both Agrawal baniyas and Punjabi khatris are influential Hindu castes that represent merchant conglomerates of north-western India. Through trade and commerce, their presence is registered all across north Indian cities and towns.

8. It is important, however, to assess whether the conservative qualification holds in the case of Balaji Telefilms. Roy (2011: 22) tries to investigate “the extent to which the popular construction of ‘tradition’ is compatible with the ideologies of globalization and how the former doesn’t resist but facilitates and crucially conditions the articulation of a certain ‘modern’ in [these] soaps.” He proposes that the insistent traditions of the apparently conservative outlook are primarily oppositional and therefore signify a new radical vision of the modern. While this vision partly articulates conservative bearings of the familial ‘order’—in terms of gendered division of labour in the domestic arena – it is not necessarily resistant to women’s mobility outside the household. The radicality of this modern cocktail rests upon the balancing act female protagonists must perform, while also doing the heavy lifting in terms of emotional labour. [return to page 2]

Unsurprisingly, then, the adherence to ‘traditions’ in Balaji productions was routinely balanced with, or rationalized against, assertive and headstrong female characters who fight back and eventually find support within the domestic arena. Examples of such serials include both productions by Balaji Telefilms, such as Bade Acche Lagte Hain (2011-2014), and those by others, such as Balika Vadhu (2008-2016), Diya Aur Baati Hum (2011-2016) and Anupamaa (2020-) (Basu and Chanda, 2011).

9. “MMS" refers to Multimedia Messaging Service, which is a way to send multimedia content (such as videos, images, and audio) through mobile networks. The title Ragini MMS alludes to a scandalous or voyeuristic recording, as "MMS scandals" were a common phrase in India for leaked or secretly recorded intimate videos.

10. While films have been made in Bhojpuri language since the 1960s, it was only in 2003 that the Bhojpuri film industry began producing a large volume of films every year, making it widely recognizable as an autonomous cultural force to reckon with. Not too long after, the later years of the 2000s witnessed a growing proportion of Hindi films directly referencing provincial north India with distinctly sub-regional linguistic and cultural overtones.

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