'Comedy, romance getting boring'

'Comedy, romance getting boring'

JAKARTA (JP): Noted playwright and film director Ali Shahab predicts that Indonesian television viewers will soon be bored with romances and comedies, and begin craving "something informative".

Speaking at the launching of his latest production, Jalan Makin Membara (the Glowing Road), Shahab said on Friday that most television dramas produced this year are likely to have more educational value.

"Viewers don't only want entertainment. They want information as well, but TV stations keep running sinetron with romances and comedies," he said. "Pretty soon the viewers will be bored."

Sinetron is the Indonesian term for television drama.

Shahab also criticized fellow producers and production houses for lacking creativity and imitating anything that has become successful.

"If one production house launches a comedy and it becomes successful, the other production houses will scramble to produce similar stories," he said.

When the private television station RCTI produced the successful program Si Doel Anak Sekolahan (Doel, the Learned) in 1994, not only did it show countless re-runs, it followed the show with a similar story called Sarana Angkutan Rakyat (about public transportation).

The latter flopped, Shahab said.

Si Doel, a situation comedy with indigenous Jakartan culture as the background, was voted the most popular sinetron in 1994.

Rano Karno, the producer, director and actor in Si Doel, and PT Karno's Film have taken in around Rp 13 billion (US$6.2 million) from the drama, which was re-aired by RCTI last year. (01)