By Raheel Mohammed

The BBC's Asian radio soap, which hits the airwaves in June 2003, is already coming under close scrutiny from the Asian community.

The successful masala for the series won't just consist of the usual ingredients - an arranged marriage, shy Indian girls, and strict Muslim fathers.

This is the equivalent of feeding chicken tikka to Indians, a recipe meant for the "sensitive" palates of white folk.

The soap, aimed at 15-34-year-olds, will be broadcast nationally on digital radio, and explore the lives of young Asians living in the Midlands as well as their relations with family and friends across the UK.

Stephen Fry (r) has appeared on on The Kumars at No 42

Although few details are available (the project is still in its embryonic stage) potential plots may well explore inter-racial marriages and homosexuality within the community.

But questions have already been raised about there has been some criticism about how authentic and realistic such a project will be.

The Labour peer Baroness Uddin, who chaired a government working group on forced marriage, hopes the BBC has put together a team which has an understanding of the Asian community.

"I hope the soap won't sensationalise Asian lives by concentrating on things like arranged marriages," she said.

Bandwagon

She was keen for it to concentrate on the "ordinariness of Asian lives - hopefully portraying women in strong roles and as role models".

"The BBC has a responsibility to the Asian licence payer to ensure that the community is presented in a sensitive and truthful way," she added.

Sarwar Ahmed is managing director of Smart Asian Media, publishers of Asian Woman magazine, Asian Bride and Asian Xpress newspaper.

He advised the BBC not to jump on the politically correct bandwagon.

Realistic

"I think the BBC has a tendency to produce drama that tries to be all things to all people, which means you just end up with something that is watered down," he said.

"The soap needs to have a strong direction, strong characters with a dysfunctional Asian family thrown in. It shouldn't be worried about taking no prisoners."

The series was seen as a positive move by Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the self-styled Muslim Parliament of Great Britain.

He believes the soap provides an important opportunity to portray Muslim families in a realistic manner.

Impact

"Now more than ever before do we need to discuss topics like Islamaphobia, discrimination, and segregation and why the race riots occurred in the North," he said.

"I think this soap will provide an important forum to air these problems and provide hope for Muslim communities."

Other members of the Asian community, including Ripal Parekh, 29, an engineer from Manchester, also have ideas on the impact of the new soap.

He believes it could learn something from the award-winning team behind the BBC comedy Goodness Gracious Me.

Focus groups

The show - arguably for the first time in British entertainment - brought to life characters the Asian community recognised and could relate to through comedy and observation.

"If you look at other Asian characters in soaps like [BBC One's] EastEnders you can tell their parts have been written by someone white," he said.

"They appear to be token offerings to the Asian community."

Gordon House, head of BBC radio drama, said the corporation was keen to accurately portray Asian life in Britain.

"We will set up focus groups to identify what kind of characters the Asian community will want to listen to which will then affect the issues we deal with," he said.

Programming shift

"We're certainly not just going to have an Asian cornershop owner whose daughter is having an arranged marriage."

The move is a far cry from the BBC's Immigrants Unit set up in the 1960s.

The rather crudely-named organisation produced programmes showing the newly arrived economic migrants how to work a gas cooker or turn a light switch on, as well as educating the host community about the visitors.

There was a major shift in programming at the BBC in the 1980s with the advent of programmes like East targeting second- and third-generation Asians with more pertinent documentaries and investigative journalism.

'Controversy'

And the past five years have seen Asian issues become essential for all the main broadcasters, as Paresh Solanki Managing Editor for BBC Birmingham explained.

"Asian culture has now become hip," he said. "A confident British Asian identity is now emerging with programmes like Goodness Gracious Me and [the BBC's spoof chatshow] The Kumars at No 42."

Vijay Sharma, head of the Asian Network, believes the soap will provide a great opportunity to bring something new to Asian audiences.

"The soap should hold up a mirror to the Asian community showing good and bad aspects," she said.

"There should be laughter and drama and it should make us feel uncomfortable at times and cause controversy - that to me would be good drama."