Set India/YouTube“Daya, please do it today.” (Daya, break the door)
Most Indians will instantly recognize this dialogue from the popular detective show CID, which ran from 1998 to 2018, making it one of the longest-running TV shows in India.
The crime thriller featured three brave cops – ACP Pradyuman, Inspector Daya, and Inspector Abhijeet – solving case after case, as no criminal was ever their equal. The low-budget episodes had simple, comedic plots, questionable acting, and all it took for the suspect to confess was a good slap from ACP Pradyuman.
But over the years, the series has achieved cult status, and its characters and dialogue have spawned a wealth of jokes, memes, and reels.
CID is set to make his comeback later this month, sparking mixed reactions among his fans. Some are eager to see the three cops back in action, but others say the show's old-world charm may not match the gritty realism of modern-day crime shows.
Over the past few days, the show's creators have been releasing teasers for upcoming episodes on Instagram, each of which has garnered hundreds of thousands of likes and comments.
Aside from the three main characters, the teasers feature familiar tropes and dialogue. This involves Inspector Daya opening the doors to reveal the suspect's hideout, and ACP Pradyuman muttering his signature phrase, “kuch toh gadbad hai, Daya” (Something is not right, Daya), signaling to both his team and the public that a crime has occurred. .
Trisha Shah, 35, a content creator from Mumbai and a fan of the show, says the teasers make her feel nostalgic.
“CID was one of the few crime shows on TV at the time, and my parents didn’t mind me watching it because of its family-friendly content,” says Ms. Shah.
“Despite being a crime show, it never shows shocking violence, sex crimes, foul language or anything inappropriate for family viewing.”
in interview To Film Companion, an entertainment journalism platform, one of the show's writers said they avoided even giving the characters nicknames to avoid hurting anyone's feelings.
But the show's bizarre plots more than made up for its debut, be it ACP Pradyuman coming back from the dead or Inspector Daya single-handedly maneuvering a plane filled with toxic gas to safety.
Set India/YouTubein interview According to Forbes, the show's producer B.B. Singh described these scenes and plots as “believable nonsense.”
He told the magazine, “You might laugh at it later (the scene). But during those five minutes it was so exciting that you don't mind it.”
In a somewhat comedic manner, the characters also explain the plots and techniques used to solve the crimes through their dialogues, making it easy for even children to understand what was happening.
“The bad guys always got caught, and it was a relief to watch them,” Ms. Shah says. “I don't think I would enjoy the show today, but at the time, it was a big deal.”
In the 1990s, television was a big deal because it was the only form of home entertainment. At the beginning of the decade, India relaxed broadcasting rights, making more channels available.
“Initially, channels like Star started showing reruns of American shows like Baywatch and The Bold and The Beautiful. But new entrants like Zee TV and Sony started producing original shows to cater to the Indian audience,” says Harsh Taneja, associate professor of media. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
He says producers often adapt Western shows for Indian audiences by importing the formats of bibles — guidelines that define story structure — and modifying them to suit the local context. So, a show like CID often features plots that are very similar to those of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, an American crime drama.
The 1990s and 2000s saw television become a staple in households as people's purchasing power grew. Many homes had not just one, but two TVs, prompting producers to create content targeting different age groups, says Taneja.
Getty ImagesInterestingly, the target audience for CID, when it was released in the 1990s, was children aged six to 14 years. After CID, several other crime-centric shows started filling the channels – from Crime Patrol to Savadhan India. But one could say that it was CID that created an appetite for crime shows among viewers.
Priya Ravi, 40, remembers eagerly waiting for every episode of CID to air as a child. She admitted that it was the show that made her push her parents to get a TV in their home.
“The episodes were broadcast twice a week, and initially I would go to a friend’s house to watch them. But then I convinced my father to buy a TV so I could watch the episodes at home. I was very happy the day the TV arrived,” says Ms. Ravi.
She says that while she won't be watching the new CID episodes, she will definitely encourage her two children, aged seven and nine, to watch them.
“If the display remains as clean as it used to be, I think it is a great way to introduce children to some of the facts of life and make them vigilant about their safety and their surroundings,” she says.
“I look forward to the return of the heroic trio.”
Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, twitter and Facebook.
