In an an interview , externalForbes magazine, producer of the show, B. P. Singh, called these scenes and plots “plausible nonsense”.
“You can laugh about it (the scene) later. But for those five minutes, she’s so captivating that you don’t mind it,” he told the magazine.
In a rather comical way, the characters also explain the plots and technologies used to solve the crimes through their dialogues, making it easy for even children to understand what is going on.
“The bad guys were always getting caught, and it was fun to watch,” says Ms. Shah. “I don’t think I’d enjoy the show today, but it was important then.”
In the 1990s, television was a big deal as it was the only form of home entertainment. At the start of the decade, India relaxed broadcasting rights, making more channels available.
“Initially, channels like Star started airing repeats of American shows like Baywatch and The Bold and The Beautiful. But new entrants like Zee TV and Sony started producing original shows for the Indian audience,” says Harsh Taneja, Associate Professor Department of Media. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Producers have often adapted Western shows for Indian audiences by importing the format of the Bible – guidelines that describe the structure of a story – and changing them for the local context, he says. As such, shows like CID often featured storylines that closely resembled those of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, an American crime drama.
In the 1990s and 2000s, television became a household staple as people’s purchasing power grew. Many homes had not one but two televisions, which led producers to create content for different age groups, says Mr. Taneja.
