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The fun and frolic side of the student life has been portrayed on Indian screens since a long time. But with the advent of OTT, the stories delved deep into the psyche of youth. From bringing out their insecurities, to discussions about parental and peer pressure, exploration of one’s sexuality and all that comes in between, the digital medium gave a platform to showcase the real life of an Indian teenager with shows like Class, Laakhon Mein Ek, College Romance and more.
Depicting youth: TV vs OTT
Talking of the evolution that the depiction of such stories has seen, actor Moses Koul, who was seen in Class, says that while the earlier era had a nuanced depiction of youth, with the advent of Cable TV, the stories turned “formulaic and orthodox”. “With OTT now, we are seeing a resurgence of the bygone era of storytelling that was lost to mainstreamification of television and films to a large degree,” he says.
Laakhon Mein Ek actor Ritvik Sahore resonates with this viewpoint as he says, “Earlier, youth would be looked at through a very unidimensional lens, which isn’t the reality. We have multiple layers to our personality and the content coming out lately has been able to capture that to some extent.” However, he asserts that the problem comes when someone much older tries to tell a story of this generation. “When a story about youth is portrayed by someone not from the generation, that’s usually when it falters. Even though the approach is honest, the generational gap does create a disconnect,” he says.
Reeling in Reality
Even Mismatched director Akarsh Khurana agrees that bridging the generational gap becomes the biggest challenge. “Gen-Z is a broad term. While there are common traits, the attitude and behaviour of youth differs as per geography and social strata, more often than not even the people writing, creating, and even judging, are not from the demographic itself. But I think if something is accepted by the generation in question, there must be something right about the depiction,” he says.
Ashim Ahluwalia, who explored the dark and gritty side of students’ lives in Class insists that his stories actually came from reality. “School can sometimes be the most stressful and difficult phase of your life. Working with students from Delhi’s international schools was essential for our research and writing. Most of the scandalous incidents are based on real stories we heard. Even the social media texts are drawn straight from real life,” he reveals.
In recent years, with films like 12th Fail and shows like Kota Factory and Aspirants, the stories of competitive exams have also become a crowd-pleaser. Explaining the reason behind it, Abhilash Thapliyal, who starred in Aspirants as SK, shares, “The audience connected with the struggle and prep that SK goes through, and a lot of things haven’t changed in the Tier 2 cities from before. We are fascinated by the big city stories, but the small city stories are also a reality, and we tried to explore that. As an audience, we are always rooting for the underdog.”
Need for wider representation
While a lot is being explored in the intense genre, there are still shows like College Romance that explore the lighter side including love and friendships. Yet, even they come with a multidimensional approach. Apoorva Arora, who starred in the show says, “The term realistic is overused but in this context, I can surely say that student lives are being portrayed in a more realistic manner today. Earlier, when we would see college stories, they would basically be just love stories. But today, it’s more relatable and layered.”
But there is still scope of improvement as Thapliyal believes, “All stories about students on OTT are not good stories. We just remember the good ones. You shouldn’t be telling a story just for the heck of it.” While Koul insists, “There is not enough representation of how economics of growing into an adult in this day and age is concerned. The world the youth is gearing up for – the economics, politics and mechanics of it, how it affects choices and aspirations. It is the most important aspect of decision making that isn’t explored.”
