Love, thrills, tragedy: How Korean dramas are taking India by storm

More than a decade ago, a helpless young woman named Geum Jan-di transferred to a selective secondary school on a swimming scholarship. The school was filled with the uber-rich kids of South Korea, and Jan-di made an honest effort to avoid interaction with the four most extravagant and spoilt young men – a group known as the F4. One day, though, she was forced to stand up against the group, which led to an entitled high-schooler having Jan-di captured and bullied.

Sounds like a troublemaker, right? But he’s the lead character of one of Korea’s hit series Boys Over Flowers, a television series based on the Japanese shojo manga series of the same name. As the story goes on, the high-schooler, played by actor Lee Min-ho, gradually begins falling in love with Jan-di, metamorphosing into a thoughtful person, who moves heaven and earth just to be able to spend time with her.

That’s the universe of K-dramas – a heady mix of romance, tragedy, and thrill that finds ready acceptance in India thanks to a shared style with popular Hindi film fare. According to stats, Netflix started working with Korean filmmakers and talent in 2016. Since then, it has introduced over 80 original Korean shows and films to Netflix users around the world, where the viewing for K-dramas in India alone increased more than 370 per cent in 2020 over 2019.

The streaming giant is investing nearly $500 million in Korea this year to add more variety and diversity to its growing slate. “We are working with top talent and filmmakers as well as exciting emerging voices from across Korea to make best-in-class stories across every genre,” a Netflix spokesperson tells me. India is “no exception” to the “ever-growing fandom of Korean stories and characters”.

The spokesperson added that “with subtitles and dubs, the language barrier has lowered, and our members have discovered and enjoyed authentic K-content”.

Dr Nimrita Bassi, an avid fan who hopped on the K-Drama bandwagon during the pandemic, has watched more than 50 Korean shows. “I had heard and read about K-Dramas being popular,” she says, “but when I watched them, they have the perfect cliffhangers that end each episode which piques the audience’s curiosity.”

Rishika Kalappa, from the Indian K-Drama fan community Sherry’s K-Drama Club, agrees with Bassi. “It makes me feel a connection to another country and its culture, even though I haven’t been there in person.”

Nicki Patel, who is part of the same community of over 11,000 people, is invested “because there is a level of respect in relationships we don’t see in Indian cinema. There is no cat-calling, and it is heartwarming to see that both genders can have the same level of affection for each other without any twists.” Another fan, Vanita Visvanath, appreciates the “one-season only” aspect of these shows. Unlike American classic shows like Friends or The Big Bang Theory, most K-Dramas are 16 to 20 episodes, and one season long, which makes it easy to binge and doesn’t leave anyone hanging.

Visvanath’s admiration for Korean drama has motivated her to join an online class on “Introduction to Korean Hangul (the alphabet)”. Some of the members of her Korean fandom community meet up in person over meals at Korean restaurants in New Delhi and Pune, where they talk about their favourite actors and dramas.

Earlier this year, famous Bollywood actor Kajol also came out as a K-drama fangirl, revealing that Crash Landing on You is one of her favourite shows. In an interview with co-star Mithila Palkar, Kajol said that she finds K-dramas “highly entertaining”.

According to a survey conducted by market research firm Euromonitor, the popularity of K-Pop and Korean drama in India has resulted in an uptick in opportunity for Korean food manufacturers, condiments makers, and the food services industry. “Korean noodles in India witnessed a growth of 162 per cent in terms of volume in 2020 and [is] expected to grow by 178 per cent in 2021,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India revealed in 2020. Many fans in the country are also preferring Korean skincare and beauty products to western and homemade products, with e-commerce marketplaces such as Nykaa estabilishing more tie-ups with Korean brands.

Many Sherry’s K-Drama Club members guarantee that “no-one does detailed storylines” as well as Korean production houses do. Take Netflix’s hit series Squid Game, where a mysterious organisation recruits people in debt to compete in a series of childish but deadly games for the chance to win a life-changing amount of money. Gagan Ojha, a 24-year-old fan from India, applauds how the show highlights the different kinds of deprivation the participants were facing.

“The honest portrayal of the Korean sharks and how they go to the lengths of making people sign off their organs if they aren’t able to pay off the due debt really baffled me,” he says. “It was gruesome but it was excellent. It made me emotional.”

Puja Talwar, the executive entertainment editor of GoodTimes, has been watching K-Dramas for six years. The way she sees it, there’s a sense of community in Korean dramas that resonates with Indians. “When I started watching K-drama, I was a part of a very small minority of individuals who knew about these shows,” says the journalist. She is impressed by how far the industry has come.

“As compared to the initial classics, I have noticed that Korean producers are not restricting themselves from touching upon topics like homosexuality, the LGBTQ+ community, and divorce in their narratives anymore. This change has led to people who don’t watch Korean dramas, to see what all the fuss is about.”

Sadia Parveen, an Indian culture writer, says that the lockdowns were another huge reason for Korean drama’s recent popularity in India. “Everyone wanted to watch something highly predictable with great chemistry between the actors and shows like Crash Landing on You was a great start I suppose!” she explains. “Most Indians also feel connected to the portrayal of family dynamics in K-dramas compared to their Western counterparts.”

Parveen describes how the “scripts are well written, the acting is on par and they maintain the right amount of the ‘unbelievability’ factor, providing a break from the infinite sagas of Indian serials.”

Mumbai-based Jayita Phulsenge, who works as the Public Diplomacy and Communications Officer at Consulate General of Canada, adds: “K-dramas have been like a blessing during this pandemic and lockdown period for me. My first K-drama was Crash Landing On You, followed by It’s Okay Not To Be Okay, and there has been no looking back for me ever since.” These shows provided her comfort, and even though she doesn’t speak Korean, “there was an instant relief” she felt from watching them.

“These shows also transport you to another world which is different yet so familiar. I watch K-dramas, especially after a bad day. It helps me recharge myself in some way unexplainable.” In a matter of five years, these shows have been dubbed in more than 30 languages on the streaming platform, including Hindi.

Therefore, it is safe to presume that this obsession isn’t dying out anytime soon.