KOCHI: “Pick up your phone and vote for your contestant, now! Because your vote matters,” goes the constant refrain on prime time television today.Over the last few years reality shows are creating a revolution of sorts in the country’s television world. Today entertainment channels seem to be competing with one another with them. It started when ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, the brilliant quiz show hosted by the inimitable Amitabh Bachchan, took Indian television by storm. Ten years on, much has changed. The rise in their viewers is as steady as the fall in their standards. There is a plethora of reality shows on everything from music to marriage, daredevilry to blasphemy. Scripted realityOften viewers tend to overlook the fact that reality shows are recorded and edited before being aired. Now-a-days, each reality show has its villains and heroes, background scores and theme songs and what’s more, miracles and tragedies. Packaged smartly into this pandora’s box is some love, some pain and lots of tears. Perhaps the greatest lure of reality shows is their shocking effect. Real life is portrayed as unceasingly unpredictable and dramatic, a ‘reality’ that all wish for. All the same, most of these shows only give short-lived emotional excitement and contribute little to intellectual development of the audience. By creating an ultimately hollow and non-existent parallel world for the viewer the shows target his or her innate curiosity even as the TV producers laugh all the way to the bank.Bait for audience“Reality shows click because they cater to a hidden and turbulent part of the viewer’s mind. Such shows liberate certain animal instincts in them,” said Dr C J John, a practitioner of psychology with the Medical Trust Hospital. He describes it as a perfect bait for the audience and believes that this is the reason why more and more reality programmes have become selective in their choice of audience. Some programmes wear the garb of nobility as they serialise cruel realities of life. But beneath their image of a good Samaritan is the simple act of selling tears. However, not everyone agrees. “The shows are not fully corrupt or fully clean. Some shows do bring to the fore issues that need to be raised before the public eye and provide help to the needy,” said Girija, a casual viewer of reality shows. But what cannot be contested is that as the viewer becomes the peeping tom, the already thin line between public and private life of a human being tends to blur.Illusion of hypeCelebrity status is one of the most intoxicating of temptations in life. By forming an illusion of hype and opportunity, many are enticed into such shows. Often, the larger than life image given to these shows only result in immense peer pressure and most people come out empty-handed and disappointed.“Now-a-days, there are many so called talent hunts that claim to give exposure to budding talents. But in reality, they are only concerned about their ratings and in the end, most of the contestants are pressurised to a breaking point by the channel and their peers,” said the winner of a dance reality show of a local channel. “This is especially true with youngsters who sometimes end up compromising even on their education,” he said, clearly suggesting that such shows do more harm than good. Many shows create the mirage of involving the viewers through SMS voting. It not only makes viewers feel they are part of the show but also deludes them into believing that they are important. But most of the time, results are pre-determined and voting statistics are simply made up. The revenue from the SMS actually goes to the producers and sponsors. “Sometimes to boost public interest, some shows even encourage regional and communal publicity,” said a parent of a contestant.Western influenceCalling the influence of the West minimal, Dr John opines that we have a tendency to ape only their sensational side, thus creating a mismatched jigsaw puzzle. “Reality shows are turning into nothing more than rehearsed commentary with unethical practices and often poor Indianised versions of their Western counterparts. The main challenge for us is to come up with original and ethical ideas of reality shows which can truly make a difference,” he said. Because of the lack of proper censorship in the broadcast field there is a lack of accountability. The media needs to do some soul searching when it comes to reality shows to stop itself from petering into nothingness. We also need a conscious effort from the audience to see through the veil and appreciate only the truly genuine. It’s time to take a short break, and think about it!
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