In past three decades, the world has progressed at a pace that seems faster than the speed of light! We have come a long way from transistors to flat screen TVs. There was a time in India when the whole neighborhood used to sit together and watch Hum Log or Buniyaad on Doordarshan (the only available channel at that time). Fast forward to year 2010, and there are over 200 channels available to us. We are so overwhelmed by this sudden boost in options, that we cannot get enough of it, shuffling betweens channels quicker than we can blink. Only a few have the cool ability to manage watching two different programs on different channels at the same time slot! The addiction to TV has become so severe that people panic when the remote battery dies or when they miss their favorite TV shows due to power cuts!
TV watching: then and now
Gone are the days, when the whole family used to sit together and watch TV to spend some quality time with each other. Now, the family does sit together, but only to resolve who gets to watch their favorite shows. Mothers curse news channels, dads curse Ekta Kapoor’s soaps, they both curse MTV for spoiling the kids, and kids blame it on the “generation gap”. Amid all this, the cable guy laughs all the way to the bank.
The latest trend in India is that of ‘Reality Television’. Each channel has at least five ‘reality’ shows, each targeted at a different age group. We have adventurous shows like Roadies, Khatron Ke Khiladi, and Dadagiri, soppy theme-based romantic shows like Splitsvilla for the youth, and drama-filled shows like Perfect Bride and Pati Patni aur Woh for the ladies of the house. The elderly and religious folks are content with shows like Mahayatra. Men were more than happy with KBC and other quiz shoes, but now have to do with talent hunt shows like Indian Idol and India’s Got Talent. And then there are some shows like Rakhi/Rahul Ka Swayamwar and Big Boss, which make no sense whatsoever.
Reality TV in India
There is a new reality show coming up every day in India! Most of them have similar themes and many of them even have the same participants but surprisingly people don’t get bored of seeing them again and again! Reality shows participants have instant access to fame and so we we hear about stampedes and mini-riots taking place during auditions and people are willing to go to any lengths to get in.
The initial concept of Reality Shows - to create something new and different (other than the usual saas-bahu saga) - was welcomed and appreciated. But gradually, these shows have taken the same path as K-serials, playing with viewer’s emotions, fooling them, and getting them hooked to the show at any cost.
Exploitative tactics
Not convinced? Well, have you ever wondered why the result is always dragged and announced after countless breaks? Why the contestants are surrounded by numerous controversies? Why the most popular contestant is always the one with lowest scores? Why there are out-of-the-blue wardrobe malfunctions and other mishaps? Why every show has to have a romance blooming up between contestants? The breaks are to please the sponsors of the show, longer the break: more money they will rake in. The results are usually pre-planned to shock and awe. These tactics and clever strategies are aimed to create curiosity and anxiousness amongst the audience, so that they have no choice but to sit paralyzed in front of the television set, chewing nails and popcorn.
How they get you
With the right amount of promotion and large scale publicity, the producers succeed at creating a stir and grabbing people’s attention. The saga goes on for months, with the audience sobbing and crying heavily with the exit of every contestant; crossing fingers and holding their breath during results, and even sending countless text messages to save their favorite contestant from being eliminated; waiting impatiently through never-ending breaks to hear the result they didn’t expect. In the course of all this, the producers and sponsors make good money.
It’s hard to stop once you are hooked and watching reality TV can be as addictive as crack. I have had my personal experience with it. Living in a hostel, it was mandatory for all of us to be present in the TV room during Indian Idol. We religiously followed the show. We cried, laughed and sang along. The finale coincided with our final exams. Unable to resist the temptation, I succumbed; all the while thinking I am the biggest fool to leave studies and watch the show. The TV room was house-full and I actually had to struggle to find a place for myself. We sat till midnight, only to witness the lesser deserving contestant win. After cursing the show-makers, we finally came back to our open books, only to realize the amount of time (and money spent on hundreds of texts sent) wasted. I then and there took a vow not to watch a reality show again. That vow was broken, when the new season of Roadies started a week after. To err is human I suppose.
Reality shows fool us (big time) and the irony is that most of these shows happen to be heavily scripted, so they aren’t even ‘real’ so to speak. Don’t believe me? Next time when you are watching your favorite show, just count the number of times you held your breath/shed a tear/cursed a judge.
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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in June, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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—About our writer:
Chani Chowdhary is a physiotherapist, yoga trainer, avid writerand an addicted blogger. Based in Mumbai & raised in 6 different states, her interests include feature writing, travel writing, medical writing and fiction writing.
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