Saturday, December 27, 2008

Reality Shows in India

The first ever music reality show was- Popstars. And the nation was hooked on to the fortunes of Viva, long before Abhijeet Sawant of Mumbai or Silchar Assam ke Debojit and Sanjaya Malakar of Mohawk hair fame! But I recalled due to age limit that there was a dance show named Boggie Woggie. It was the first dance show that changed the idiot box viewers interaction. It was the first popular show across India that made the participation of an average Indian possible. Even S. Sreesanth danced to its tune in his childhood days.

Apart from the past, the airing program reminded me of unlimited potential spread across our land. India is beautiful nation and full of colors in each aspect of life. Brilliant Performance by children shows the changing attitude of previous generation towards dance, songs and cultural values. Ethics are changing with time (Degrading according to previous generation).

A new type of show is spreading across cable channels: Reality Show for talent hunting.

Until now, so called 'reality shows' have really been talent shows. Indian Idol, Fame Gurukul, Sa re ga ma,Great Indian Laughter Challenge - all of them promise to make a star out of an unknown quantity.On one hand rich cultural heritage and diversity are expressed to us by competition and on other 'Make a name of yourself fast & big philosophy' is in full flow in masses. Mainly dance, songs, comedy or mimicry is limited to bollywood. Folk culture is dying in fast rush of population for city culture or consumer culture. Leave alone the Drama, Tantrum and TRP ratings. For nonjudicial and biased decision of reality shows, read this brilliant article:

From youthcurry blog, one line thrashers for this trash shows:

Rock n Roll Family: They flirt shamelessly with the judges, and debate on saali being aadhi or poori gharwali. All scripted for sure but there is no sharam or lihaaj in either the banter or the matkas and jhatkas.

Big Boss: It may be trivial, perfectly "yeww" in parts. But even discussing how much you supposedly hate it... is fodder for canteen conversation.

MTV Roadies:The irony of each rounds is that if you ask a junior to do this kind of thing in college, it's called 'ragging' and you could go to jail.

Splitsvilla: The I & B ministry recently issued a notice to MTV for 'denigrating women' .
In my(yayaver) opinion 15 girls to seduce 2 boys is really cat fight not to miss by each boy/guy at home alone.Truly,all of them are one more step ahead for voyeurism,vulgar language and dirty politics on idiot box.And all things are done in the name of reality.

My opinion: We are feeding upcoming generation with "reality TV" obsessed culture. The way the real-life viewers ignore the real lives of their compatriots and customers while focusing on a false life on screen; whose life is more real and whose is worth living? Instead, the insight aspect of the reality show has been catapulted by a society that would more readily watch "reality" than live it.Notable watch for understanding and future of reality showbiz: The Truman Show in this genre.

Message for die hard reality shows fan: The audience that watched the reality show is a self-indulgent audience of consumers who wanted to be entertained no matter what the cost to characters, reminded me of the soaps opera & Paparazzi, of how we like to know about the celebrities, and ultimately of how the product could be the death of someone such as Princess Diana.

Rashmi Bansal quotes in her post about sad state of affairs---
"The whole idea of the new generation of 'reality' shows is to create an 'emotional infection'. While the characters in a soap opera act and evoke emotions, reality shows set up a showdown of some kind which induce emotions, spontaneously. The ultimate irony, isn't it? 'Reality shows' and their contestants are becoming more real and newsworthy for viewers ... than reality itself."

Bottomline: Life is not fair - that is reality. Neither are reality shows which are actually not real at all...

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