Baywatch Wannabes

AQUA, Udham Singh, Simply South, Titanic. "Earlier, youth in the smaller towns were wary of experimenting. Now they see their westernised counterparts on TV and suddenly it's cool," says Sundeep Malhotra, general manager, DCM Benetton. "The MTV generation is a universal phenomenon."

 So when MTV VJ Rahul Khanna changes his hairstyle, barbers from Siliguri to Surat have to upgrade. When Alessandra and Laila Rouass' hemlines rise, thousands of teenyboppers across the country want their wardrobes revamped. And not only teenyboppers. "Earlier only the teenagers would come to buy Levi's. Now 45-year-olds too are demanding 501s," says Saranjit Singh, franchisee for Levi's in Ludhiana. "These days women don't buy outfits only for special occasions," says Nitish Majithia, owner of Vadodara's Rapunzel boutique. "They buy due to an increasing awareness about looking good." When Rapunzel started off 10 years ago, the most expensive dress cost Rs 1,000. That's the minimum price now, and the boutique stays open till 11 pm.

With satellite TV shovelling hi-life images down small-town throats, suddenly the attitudinal gap between metros and small-town India is disappearing. "Markets are evolving very fast and unexpectedly from the level of 'desire to buy' to 'conversion of desire into wish to buy' to 'actual purchase decision, supported by actual disposable incomes', as a result of exposure to satellite TV," says Nabarun (Nabi) Gupta, marketing director, Videocon.

But Baywatch attitudes also coexist uneasily with centuries-old conservatism. In Ludhiana, in spite of all the baroque westernisation, boys still spend time with their girlfriends in cars, behind tinted windows. Youngsters mixing around openly is still frowned upon. Girls are permitted western dress codes only till they are married off. That's why small-town consumerism seems to have an insecure edge to it.

Insecurity also leads to pretentiousness. Says George Thomas, a chartered accountant in Kottayam: "If there is a clearance sale here, people think that they're buying something cheap. They may pick up goods from other towns in the clearance sales but when they are in Kottayam, their snobbishness will force them not to buy." S. Muralidharan, owner of the Quilon Radio Service, the largest white goods dealer in the richest town in Communist-ruled Kerala has a more sardonic take on Kottayamites. "Communism breeds healthy consumerism," he says. "Communism forces people to think that all are equal, and even poor people buy things just to feel that they are on par with their employers. That's why I have this booming business here."