Why K-Dramas Are Popular Among Young Indian Women?

Have you ever wondered why has there been a boom in K-dramas and K-pop in India? Why do young Indian women love these 16-episode series so much? I think I have a few ideas!

Almost every second person in India knows about K-drama or K-pop, and most of the time this second person is always a woman. Almost every female friend of mine has watched some kind of K-drama or heard K-pop, whereas the same cannot be said in the case of men. That led me to think, and after a lot of thinking and analysing, I realized a few factors which played a huge role in their popularity.

They can be listed as follows:

A lot of south Indian movies that I watched growing up showed a lot of violence gift-wrapped as romance.  Men, may not realize what is wrong with such a portrayal, but as a woman, I can always sniff out that something about the violent grabbing, slapping on the butt and forceful kisses aren’t love.

Household chores are shared equally

Finding a man who shares household chores or who agrees to take care of their own kids while the female partner rests up a bit, is still a fantasy to many women and  K-dramas tend to provide them with that fantasy even though it’s just on-screen.

No hitting or slapping

This is my personal favourite because as intriguing as our south movies are, there is only a handful which can be hand-picked where women aren’t portrayed derogatorily. Unnecessary slapping of the heroine to teach her a lesson or just hitting to let her know her place is almost always a serial occurrence in our films!

Whereas, there are no such actions of violence that happen among the romantic leads of K-dramas, which attracts a lot of women to watch these stories.

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No excessive skinship

Somehow, I find it fascinating how K-dramas have cracked the code for romance from the female point of view! Whereas many other forms of media and films mostly show it in a way to cater to the male point of view.  Even though women do love skinship, there is a lot more than this that women are looking for in a relationship.

To cater to the male point of view, a lot of our films end a story with kissing or having sex and that being the ultimate sign of union! Whereas the majority of romantic K-dramas portray talking openly about trauma and family problems with each other as the ultimate form of union, which attracts many Indian women who are looking for something emotionally comforting rather than just skin ship.

Female leads are highly relatable

The female characters are always given well-flushed personalities and have their own opinions! And they carry the weight of the story on their back while also keeping the character genuinely human with flaws!

On the other hand, most of our films tend to swing to one extreme where a strong character is just strong because of the absence of an emotional expression or a weak character who always crying and needs rescuing! When in reality women are a mix of both and K-dramas tend to grasp this fact very well.

And of course handsome young men

60-year-old man romancing a 20-year-old girl is the norm of our films, whereas seeing same-aged men and women as leads kind of excites the female audience!

Contrary to the popular view that women don’t care about looks, women do care about looks and looking at someone that is pleasing to the eyes and someone who is attractive from the female point of view is also a major contributor. We do love watching clean, well-dressed men who have great hair on screen!

These are only a handful of reasons which I could think of. There might be many more reasons which may cater to their popularity. As more and more K-dramas get released in India, we will find more relatable reasons!

Image source: Images from Soompi.com and primipil free and edited on CanvaPro

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