WOMANHOOD IN AN INDIAN TV SERIES: AN AUDIENCE STUDY ON JODHA AKBAR TV SERIES

The growth of Indian wave in Indonesia has reached its peak through Indian TV series with historical-based story aired in one of Indonesian TV stations namely ANTV. This paper scrutinizes audience's attitude toward Indian TV series, namely Jodha Akbar, as the current phenomenon happens in society and how female viewers contextualize womanhood issue that lies within the main female character in the TV series within Indonesian setting. This research is a qualitative research with interpretive approach. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews toward several female viewers who met several criteria that have been set by the researcher. The researcher used snowball sampling to collect the data and then analyzed the interview results using Ien Ang’s theory about audience reception and England, Descartes and Collier-Meek theory about womanhood. It is found that these female viewers give positive responses more than the negative one. They also not only regard the main female character in the series as women; more than that, they see Jodha from the perspective of a mother, a wife and a leader figure. They also value the role of a mother, a wife and a leader figure as something that is not be able to find in women in modern society. Furthermore, Jodha Akbar TV series itself has successfully presented special characteristics of Indian women figure through Jodha Bai character that makes the respondents compare this to Indonesian women figure that had lost their characteristics