Take a guess. Of 48 separate programmes on six Hindi general entertainment channels* running from Monday to Friday between 7.30 to 11 pm – how many have Muslim protagonists or characters? Exactly TWO. This is a number which would warm the cockles of Donald Trump’s heart. But seriously, this is not a new phenomenon. Since 2008, there have been exactly six programmes with Muslim protagonists.

Why is this worrying? Because pop culture is supposed to reflect the society of the time. Whether it be through music, films or television, pop culture at the end of the day both reflects and shapes us. Take for example reality television. The reason it is seen to succeed is because it appeals to the basest instincts of humans – the desire to see others fail or be humiliated. Which is why when reality TV does well in a country, you wonder what it says about TV audiences in that country. Which is why, as an aside, we should take solace from the dipping fortunes of Bigg Boss.

Because of pop culture’s reflective role, over the last decade on American TV, we have suddenly started seeing a greater and more true-to-life representation of people from different ethnicities. These range from Indians to Pakistanis to African-Americans – playing either main roles or significant characters in popular shows. There’s Koothrapali in The Big Bang Theory, Mindy Kaling in The Mindy Kaling Show, Kalinda Sharma in The Good Wife, multiple characters in Orange Is The New Black, How To Get Away With Murder & Scandal. Even our Priyanka Chopra is front-lining a show, Quantico. Basically, we no longer get to see a whitewashed version of America, as in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Hell, there’s even a show called Black-ish about an upper-middle class, African-American family, which is in its second season now.

If you watch American television, you’d know that America was a country with people with diverse religions and ethnicities living in it.

But if you were to watch Hindi television of this decade, you wouldn’t really be blamed for thinking India is – and now the Vishva Hindu Parishad can be pleased – an undivided Hindu family, with an icchadhari naagin and balika vadhus thrown in for good measure. The reason why this is worrying is because pop culture unlike high culture or folk culture is communicated through mass media, which therefore means it is consumed by more people. While fiction television is hardly depicting real-life situations, it’s still worrying that the TV watching denizens of India are viewing a completely skewed picture of the demographic of India.

So what gives – is there a bias against Muslim content in India which is why channels are not commissioning more Muslim shows? After all, there are more than enough Muslim actors in the business, all at the top of their game. Is it that audiences don’t want to watch programming with Muslim characters? That makes no sense to me, but here’s what I discovered. First off, there is no data or study showing what kind of content Indian TV audiences would like to watch. Broadcasters decide what show they’d like to telecast based on their own opinion and experience. Which brings me back to my question, why is there so little Muslim content?

Since 2008, these are the Muslim shows which have gone on air across Life OK, &TV, Star Plus, NDTV Imagine, Zee, Sony and Colors.

According to a creative director at one of the largest production houses in India, “there might be an anti-Muslim content bias from the broadcasters because for the longest time people thought Muslim content won’t work. The basic trepidation being that who will watch these shows since Hindus outnumber Muslims heavily in India. But people did try their hand at shows with Muslim characters. Gul Khan made Chand Ke Paar Chalo way back in 2008, but it didn’t work – which could well be because NDTV Imagine didn’t work either. Qubool Hai which has now been running for three years was rejected by all the networks. Other than Zee which desperately needed a new show. And their gamble paid off, because Qubool Hai became a hit. Yet, Sajda Tere Pyaar Mein on Star didn’t succeed. Beintehaa on Colors was a semi success”.

According to the same director, “there is no religious bias when it comes to casting. The bias isn’t let’s not make shows for Muslims. It’s the fear that, will Hindus watch Muslim content? Which with Qubool Hai’s resounding success became very clear, that if the content is good then they will. But there are more Hindu producers, so the content presented is Hindu more than Muslim. Because I suppose you make shows about what you have known or lived”.

This same view was repeated by Gul Khan, producer of three of the six shows with Muslim characters which have gone on air since 2008.  According to Khan, and she stressed this point, there is no communal divide or communal prejudice even subliminally at broadcast channels. And she’s been in the business for the longest time, so she should know. She does feel that “people are comfortable with the milieu they’ve grown up with or lived with. So they make shows about that milieu”. Also, and this is a point I found most pertinent, “of around 15 producers, only three are Muslim. And all the shows that have been made since 2008 have been made by these producers”. Other than the latest show by Balaji. According to Khan, two out of 48 shows is almost equally representing India’s Muslim percentage. Which isn’t quite correct, but I get her point.

This is interesting because it’s almost symptomatic of what is happening on American television. According to a Quartz article, there is a direct correlation between the number of protagonist women characters and characters of colour/minority ethnicity you see on a show, and the number of women writers and minority writers working on the show.

After all, both Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder – which have African-American women as the lead character – are produced by an African-American woman, Shonda Rhimes. Who is changing the face of American television as we’ve known it – and how.

Writers and producers are the people who can decide whether a show will portray a fair representation of ground realities when it comes to ethnicities and gender. Or skew the curve a little further, perpetuating prejudices. The Quartz report found that, “In the 2011-2012 TV season, less than a third of writers were women and only one in seven was a minority. (If writers’ rooms of US TV shows were to reflect the country’s actual demographics, they would be half women and more than a third minorities.)”

Makes sense that if three of 15 producers are Muslim, we’ll get as few shows featuring Muslim characters as we are getting on Indian television. Although we should still get more than we are getting. More’s the pity for us, and for future generations of viewers of Indian TV who are going to be wondering – where did all the Muslims go? Maybe it’s time to change things around for the sake of more interesting and balanced programming. Or we’ll have to resign ourselves to watching rip-offs of Tales From The Crypt with Bipasha Basu as crypt-keeper and various child widows and brides and evil mothers-in-law in Kabuki make-up.

*The channels are Star Plus, &TV, Zee, Life OK, Sony, Colors