Saucy, spunky, sassy... "I love two men...exciting, isn't it?" asks the mini-skirted lass sitting cross legged across the huge

hoarding on the highway. The title of the show she endorses is equally tantalising. Kucch Love Kucch Masti on Sahara One is unapologetic about its three protagonists who wear provoking clothes, mouth pithy dialogues and sport a tart attitude. Sahara isn't alone in its endeavour to change perception about the current generation. Zee's Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na is about three young guys who are out to find love and its connotations. The grapevine has it that the serial is inspired loosely by HBO's famed miniseries Sex and the City. Elsewhere, on new entrant Zoom, Kamal Sidhu and Sameer Kochar settle down comfortably after 11 pm to discuss um.. er...topics that have never been spoken about freely on TV before. Is this a society in evolution? Or simply desperate measures by channels that are running out of programming ideas and need to stand out of the increasing clutter? Is generation Next really brazen enough to talk about adultery, willing to fall in love with older men and discuss their sexual preferences openly? "Of course," insists Sahara One's Karuna Samtani. She should know. Samtani was responsible for shows like Sailaab, Tara and Purush Kshetra and Shaadi Ya? on Zee in the 1990s. She maintains that the current crop of bold shows are not a new phenomenon. "it's a matter of perception. Shaadi Ya? dealt with a lot of strong and realistic issues about marriage and the Indian woman. The fact that it didn't do well does not deter from the fact that it showed what was currently happening in society," she says. An overview of programming trends however shows that the spunky, bold and often brazen serials have often come from second rung players like Sahara and zee, while Star Plus, has consistently steered clear of such issues. The fledgling Star One's new show, He Man, however, begs to deviate from the Star norm, with a panel of women who judge men by their various attributes on a show, a la Swayamvar. Are the audiences ready for it? "Why not?" questions Sonika, one of the three leads of Kucch Love Kucch Masti. Sonika says the show is real, and that falling in love with a married man is no big deal. "Today's woman wants love, not marraige," she avers. "I know of many girls who are having affairs with married men, and they have a better life than many others who are locked in matrimony, perhaps because they don't have spouses who reduce them to a door mat," she ends laughingly. Co host of Dangerous, the late night show that talks sex, Sameer Kochar, agrees with Sonika. "Societal norms are definitely shifting. We are flooded with phone-ins from people who can't stop talking about their relationships, fetishes and dissatisfactions," he says. So, are viewers slowly turning away from the saas bahu serials? "Not really," avers Samtani, "these will continue as the staple, but they can be bold in their own way, as Kasautii Zindagi Kay is. As society and situations change, serials are bound to reflect these changes." The older generation may gape at the blatant protagonists of the Gen Next shows, but obviously bold is here to stay.Television goes bold!