There was once upon a time when the Big Fat Indian Wedding used to be regarded as the yardstick to measure the opulence of the Indian mindset. Not now, not anymore! These days it’s measured in terms of TRP (target rating point, for the uninitiated). With everything from weddings to birthdays, love to heartbreaks, sex to rock n’ roll, Indian TV is on a roll (no puns intended).
This post is not about critiquing the current state of Indian television, sad though as it is. Instead, it is my attempt to understand the specific mindset which drives this entire industry in pushing its products further and further into the risqué, and increasingly ludicrous. Let’s start off with the self-proclaimed “baap” of “reality shows” – ROADIES. MTV surely hit the jackpot years ago when it brought a show of emotions and “mardaangi” on steroids at a time when saas and bahus ruled and rued about the dead and mundane. While Roadies initially succeeded because it pioneered an era of hard-hitting concept marketing and aggressive packaging, it unwittingly opened the floodgates to a market which is currently ruled by sappy tear-jerkers and “maa-baap ki galis”, a pit in which the show itself has found itself in increasingly in the past few years, the irony being that it was brought along initially to do exactly the opposite. But anyways, who are we kidding? Whose fault is it if a little part of us giggles in glee as we see our favourite contestant or host “bajao”-ing the other contestants all the while mouthing the choicest of abuses. Hey, it’s cool right? And in recent years, the show has tried to diversify it’s reportoire, by “weeding” out the “fake” and the “weak”. Huh, what? Contestants go through a “tough” selection procedure and grilling (read TRP-boosting) interviews to finally make it to the top. But guess what, I am a fan of all that and much much more. I am a self-proclaimed ROADIE buff, but even I can’t deny the ludicrousness of it all. Now, moving on from Roadies, we have other “spectacular” shows like Bigg Boss which is entirely built around the concept of voyeurism. Tell me, since when did watching a person 24X7 start getting appealing ? The biggest problem of it all lies not in the voyeurism, but in the scripted reality that these shows and channels sell to the audience. Is the audience really that dumb to not know what’s real and what’s fake? Voyeurism is an inherent part of human nature and so I won’t deny it’s lurid attraction. But when reality is sold scripted, how do you accept it as an audience? And finally, I thought love and marriage is held as the most sanctimonious and private in anyone’s life. Then how do you participate or rather allow someone to intrude into that personal space and let it be sold as a commodity? As a viewer, I am mortified at the repercussions of such an intrusion and how it affects the audiences’ mentality. These days, you have reality shows trying to test d fidelity of couples. Ohh yes, what a brilliant plan, isn’t it? The “creative” head who thought of that must have gotten a raise and is drawing a 6-figure salary, at peace with his own personal life. But does he care to see how his concept is playing havoc with the lives of so many young couples? Love in these days is already fragile. Why commercialize on it’s fallibility and weaken it’s strength? The critiques might hit me with the argument, ohh it’s just entertainment. But then my question is, if this is entertainment, then doesn’t it point out to us as a viewer that maybe there is something wrong with the concept of entertainment as a whole. With all the “maardangi’ and “DADAGIRI” on display, why can’t they make a reality show which shows these daredevils take on the religious and political fanatics and put them on one-on-one fights or Hell-in-a-Cell matches? Hey, I would pay good money to see such shows! And also since all the concepts of reality shows seem imported from the west, how about borrowing concepts from shows like “The Amazing Race” or “Wipeout” which is reality entertainment in it’s finest? I guess the “creative” heads are really what they say they are – CREATIVE! Hell, so if I got an MBA and got myself a job at an entertainment channel, who knows maybe my dreams of Roadies fighting Rowdies might be a reality!
