When reality bites

Indian channels are overflowing with innumerable senseless reality shows, most of them promote regionalism.

Welcome to the endless, aimless, nerve-racking world of reality TV shows, which Indian channels are overflowing with right now. Take for example Indian Idol and its loose content that is repeatedly just thrown back at the audience, while the only thing that ever changes is the set and the participants.

You switch on the television and see a young bespectacled boy saying something in Bengali and blabbering a series of numbers after that. And suddenly you realize it’s a Hindi channel you are watching and wonder why this boy is talking in Bengali?

Many of these reality shows claim to encourage and showcase new talent from all over India. But this claim is absolutely false as these shows never come down south to audition participants; in fact contestants from South India have to go all the way to one of the North Indian cities to give their auditions. Most of the auditions for these reality shows happen only in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur etc. South India doesn’t even figure into the equation for shows like Amul Voice of India and Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. How can we then consider the participants of these shows as a true representation of the entire country?

After a long selection process, certain participants are chosen to show their talent to the country. The winner is selected through audience votes, so the participant with the highest number of votes wins. Appealing for votes is when you get to know which part of the country the participant belongs to because they do so in their regional languages, implying that they do not trust the audience and voters of other states.

Which, given the evidence, is probably a wise idea. The scene becomes murkier when the judges of the various shows take sides on the basis of their own states and regions. The judges are given that particular position because they are thought to be unbiased and are expected to make their decisions on the basis of talent and not region. Abhijeet a very famous singer, is the judge of a reality show for budding singers, he supports and encourages only people from his own state of West Bengal. And when such things happen, it discourages new talent and artists.

All these small issues divide the country and promote regionalism. In solving the problem, the media has a greater responsibility than any other institution; the country’s media should come up with shows that promote integrity and encourage new talent and artists who come from the most downtrodden areas of the country as well as from the glitz and glamour of the big cities.

Talent is talent; it doesn’t matter whether it comes from Bihar or Bangalore.

Rana Mohammed

1st yr. M.A Mass Communication