Mumbai, July 23 :    Mumbai, July 23:  Nuclear family is out. Joint family is back in, at least on the small screen. From STAR to Sony and Zee to Sahara, the cable channels are swamped with 'dailies' or daily soaps, charting the travails of joint families, which social scientists say are fast becoming a thing of the past. Even staid Doordarshan is not left behind, with its share of the dailies drawing millions of viewers. 'A joint family is no longer a reality. It's almost become a dream that we are selling and you know dreams always sell,' said Nirav Vaidya, an executive producer with UTV, one of the largest makers of soaps with the joint family theme. Though Doordarshan aired Buniyaad, arguably the first joint family saga on television in the late eighties, Sun TV set the modern trend in mid-nineties, UTV creative director Ramesh Balakrishnan, said. It did not take long for the trend to filter into Mumbai, the country's entertainment capital, where it has become a formula. For the moment, the formula is working as the channels are cashing in on an unconscious yearning for joint families in the Indian psyche. The Virani family of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, a big hit on STAR Plus, is now a talk of many real-life families at dining tables. When Mihir Virani, the dutiful son of the family played by Amar Upadhyay, died a television death a few months ago, scores of heartbroken viewers swamped Balaji Telefilms, the maker of the soap, with letters to bring the dead Mihir back. So fearful had the channel become of a drop in rating and revenue that the 'dead son' made a reappearance in the soap as the scriptwriter struggled to keep the story together. 'There is a nostalgia for the fading joint family. Almost every family has fond memories of the days gone by, the days spent together with grandparents, uncles and aunts. Little wonder that this theme is working,' Rekha Nigam, senior vice-president of Sony, said. Nigam said people could often relate to the theme. 'There is a connection somewhere.' Analysts said the simple storyline in the joint family soaps is also a reason for their success. The dailies do not deal with grave issues, but simple everyday happenings the viewers connect with. For the production houses like UTV and Balaji Telefilms, these daily soaps make good economic sense, too. They spend less on dailies than 'weeklies' or weekly soaps, but earn much more. The cost of a set to shoot a weekly and a daily is the same, helping a production house save a lot on the daily soaps. The cast in a daily soap charge less because they are assured of continuous work. It is just the reverse while they are working in weeklies. 'The dailies, mostly on joint families, are now the mainstay of production houses. They are extremely profitable, almost five times more than the weeklies,' Manish Popat, UTV's chief operating officer, said. Echoed Raj Nayak, head of sales of STAR TV: 'These soaps are a win win for everybody - for the production houses as well as for the channels.' Not everyone is sure how long the joint family formula will work. 'I don't see it happening a year or two from now. People will get fed up of it as well,' said Vaidya, maker of Shagun, rated the number one non-prime time show on STAR Plus. Nigam of Sony Entertainment disagreed. 'It may work forever because of more and more problems nuclear families are facing. Who knows?'