So did the racist allegations and verbal sparrings that went on in the Celebrity Big Brother's house merit all the limelight in the media? Anyone who read and watched all the media limelight on the issue must have wondered why were we giving this so much attention?Because frankly speaking, its no revelation, really! We all know racism exists. We all know in some measures that there are groups of people who believe in their own superiority of race, colour etc. And it exists in ample measures in India as well, be it, in matrimonial columns, our casteist ghettos, everywhere. So why get all emotional about Shilpa Shetty facing a little of it? Was it because we idolise our celebs and put them on a high pedestal, that we cannot think of them facing some of these racist remarks in their 'rose tinted' glamorous lives?
So why is everyone shocked? Yes we know it should'nt exist, we all ascribe to the fact that racism is , to put it brazenly, stupid. We are shocked because we've been affected by a television phenomenon called "Reality TV". Reality TV has made amazing voyeurs out of us. Despite what we have heard, read or watched stuff about racism, we've never witnessed it for ourselves, atleast hopefully most of us havent been victims of it! And when a reality show, has celebrities as participants, we expect them to be on their diplomatic best, we would hardly expect them to swear, fart or even frown and look their frumpy selves. So when viewers are faced by such revelations, in this case some swear words, some racist screaming, some crying, viewers react, viewers wonder. It made people wonder about the very existence of multiculturalism in UK. Yeah it made great news, hogged media headlines in UK because suddenly Jade Goody became the enemy, she was struggling to keep her career on track after her verbal sparrings with Shilpa made public, made her seem like this vamp out of a hindi film.
But in the end all the limelight has finally paid off, a flagging show picked up tremendous rating points so what if the momentum to get the couch potatoes glued to the show was brought on by enraged desi viewers in the UK ..eyeballs are after all eyeballs, here, obviously, the colour of the skin doesnt matter! And of course Shilpa's won plenty herself!! A career going downhill suddenly seems heading west, a biography contract, a possible hollywood offer..you never know! first published:January 29, 2007, 13:29 ISTlast updated:January 29, 2007, 13:29 IST
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"So how is the Indian Media covering the entire Shilpa Shetty issue?" It was weird being on the other side...fielding questions rather than asking them. Anna Cunningham, a BBC radio correspondent, flew down from UK, just to get the Indian perspective to the Shilpa Shetty-Celebrity Big Brother issue. Doing the wait and the watch routine outside Sunanda Shetty's house (my other journo friends will definitely identify with this term..where you basically wait and watch, with hope that maybe you will get that 'bite' that could add to the reactive bit to your story) early saturday morning I bumped into Anna, who wanted to know an Indian correspondent's view to the Shilpa Shetty issue. And while I was all bemused by the attention the international media was giving to this issue, it was quite obvious that they were taking this really seriously. In some twenty minutes I saw another team from UK, they were photojournalists from a wire news agency, and they wanted to know was if the Shilpa Shetty's mom was talking to the media about the Jade Goody eviction.
So did the racist allegations and verbal sparrings that went on in the Celebrity Big Brother's house merit all the limelight in the media? Anyone who read and watched all the media limelight on the issue must have wondered why were we giving this so much attention?Because frankly speaking, its no revelation, really! We all know racism exists. We all know in some measures that there are groups of people who believe in their own superiority of race, colour etc. And it exists in ample measures in India as well, be it, in matrimonial columns, our casteist ghettos, everywhere. So why get all emotional about Shilpa Shetty facing a little of it? Was it because we idolise our celebs and put them on a high pedestal, that we cannot think of them facing some of these racist remarks in their 'rose tinted' glamorous lives?
So why is everyone shocked? Yes we know it should'nt exist, we all ascribe to the fact that racism is , to put it brazenly, stupid. We are shocked because we've been affected by a television phenomenon called "Reality TV". Reality TV has made amazing voyeurs out of us. Despite what we have heard, read or watched stuff about racism, we've never witnessed it for ourselves, atleast hopefully most of us havent been victims of it! And when a reality show, has celebrities as participants, we expect them to be on their diplomatic best, we would hardly expect them to swear, fart or even frown and look their frumpy selves. So when viewers are faced by such revelations, in this case some swear words, some racist screaming, some crying, viewers react, viewers wonder. It made people wonder about the very existence of multiculturalism in UK. Yeah it made great news, hogged media headlines in UK because suddenly Jade Goody became the enemy, she was struggling to keep her career on track after her verbal sparrings with Shilpa made public, made her seem like this vamp out of a hindi film.
But in the end all the limelight has finally paid off, a flagging show picked up tremendous rating points so what if the momentum to get the couch potatoes glued to the show was brought on by enraged desi viewers in the UK ..eyeballs are after all eyeballs, here, obviously, the colour of the skin doesnt matter! And of course Shilpa's won plenty herself!! A career going downhill suddenly seems heading west, a biography contract, a possible hollywood offer..you never know!
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