How did they ever find time to make love? In Indian soap operas, watched nightly by tens of millions, the women were so busy scheming, disparaging, fighting and baring their fangs, within the large cast of the typical Indian joint family, they didn't have time for intimacy.
That has changed, with the first love-making scene shown on Indian television recently in the hit soap Bade Ache Lagte Hain ('All Looks Too Good').
It was the latest in a string of scenes and themes aired on Indian television recently to veer into once-taboo subjects and touch on the social changes gripping the country.
By Western standards, the scene was tame. The couple are relieved after it is confirmed that the wife (played by Sakshi Tanwar) does not have breast cancer, as suspected, and they explore their feelings for each other. The portly husband (Ram Kapoor) pulls his wife, Priya, towards him, and they kiss. They are discreetly shown making love in a candlelit bedroom with (what else?) a slushy Bollywood track in the background.
A middle-aged married couple making love without nudity or explicit shots is not exactly trailblazing stuff, but for conservative India, it was sensational. The country buzzed with talk of the scene, which has attracted almost 300,000 hits on YouTube. Yet, rather than being bombarded with angry protests, the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council reported receiving 'two or three'.
This shows how soap producers such as Ekta Kapoor, known as the 'queen of television' in India, are finding acceptance as they push into new realms by portraying emotions and situations never before shown.