Last day after a long time I got to know that the emotional animal in me is still awake...I watch with my family ( like many many other Malayali Families ) a reality music show christened Superstar in one of the youngest of Malayalam TV channels by the name Amritha TV. For the uninitiated, the final five stage is here, where they have choosen a group of Five ( one girl and the rest boys)..last week, one had to get out and thus making it final four ( I would have ,if given a choice, named it the fabulous four)....
A young lad named Ajay, a NRK from Mumbai, after having sung a beautiful song, which requires tremendous potential and professional calibre to render, broke down, crying bitterly like a kid...It was heart moving, atleast for me...
Amritha Tv is a new entity in the hugely competitive Malayalam TV channel Industry and yet the new wave of innovative programmes, lead by the above said superstar is making people flock to their Tv sets and the proof....? Just see the commercial breaks and the duration..the length of the commercial breaks being longer than the actual programme is the first symptom......
Reality shows and such novel thoughts have redefined the way TV as a medium is perceived, world over. India is no exception... They come in every form.. every conceivable and implausible formats....celeb reality shows..court room reality shows..dating and reality shows...Hidden camera reality shows...law reality shows..sports reality..real life mystery shows and misery shows...
30 days show- a show that follows what happens when people spend 30 days living in someone else's shoes, Ghost hunting shows..mmmm... beware ad guys.!!!!!...Xtreme show and fear factor...Amazing Asia race..what not to wear... who wants to be a super hero ....wife swap....Treasure hunters..tiara girls show....survivor and survival of the richest...sexual healing and skating with celebrities...queer eye for the straight guy...making the band...count down to lock down..dancing with the stars...cow boy u...family jewels...filty rich..I wanna b a soap star...how to get the guy..king of cars..it goes on and on and on......
Mtv is probably the only one media vehicle which owns an entire generation with its name...its gutsy ,glamorous, no nonsense and materialistic attitude have made it the trusted ally of millions of people ,particularly youngsters, world wide.In India Mtv is celebrating its 25 th anniversary and real shows and rocking stuff has mesmerised the crowd here as well. For instance the Mtv show roadies is " stunt,pasion,exitement,enjoyment,makes them a great reality show" as per a fan writing in their website...
"It is all about MBA" ..says another yoyo kid.."Money, Bikes and Adventure"...
another ardent fan writes .."welll roadies is wonderful..adventurous...exciting.rash...tuff...gr8...goal oriented yet fun..spirited..n many more stuff... its superb,mindblowing,hip -hop...nce overall..gr8 2 watch n fantastic 2 participate......KEEP IT UP GUYS...I WANT ROADIEZZ 100 TH EPISODE SOOONN" ......
Not that it is all bouqets and smiles...Mtv and controversy are co brothers..see this piece....
"All people who are selected in roadies are mentally degenerate.. thats the success mantra for this godamn show... if you put all the m_________s of the world in 1 room, somethings gonna give and mtv cashes in on that. in other words mtv makes a lotta money seliing people's apathy to all the sick b_____s".......ooofffff.......THAT is along breath of fowl air..
Still Mtv leads..... not just in the genre where they belong to, but also in the entire Tv media.....No doubt, across genres, the reality shows revolution is happening and the credit to a large extend goes to Mtv.
Abhijeet sawant and Amit sana became national sensations overnight, thanks to Indian Idol ,and even before Sunil Pal won the The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, people knew him and all the finalists. Not to mention KBC and KBC 2..all the mee too KBC's...Sona Khazana's and Thanga vettai's ,Bangaram Meekosam's and Swarna mazhai's...
And all those disparagement and critisim about people (participants) plummeting themselves to the level of goods for sale , seems to be factual but it still attracts people to herd and congregate before such programmes......
Talents beseeching and pleading -please... please... vote for me seems to be true but it also looks like it is what the average viewer wants, if one goes by the number of SMS's that criss cross our poor nation........
Mediocrity creeping in, over time -like in the case of Fame Gurukul, initially when the show failed to draw audience, the makers resorting to cheap gimmicks and attention-grabbers and yet the shows draw better response from the TG than the Saas- Bahu Kyonkis'....
The parent shows like American Idol (Indian idol is a poor imitation, they accuse... ) still generate a lot of viewership even in India.The latest in this wave of adaption seems to be the Sony reality show-‘ purest form of drama’-Bigg Boss’ which will feature 13 celebrities living in a house for 100 days without access to the outside world and under the vigilance of cameras, which will expose them to viewers 24x7 ...sounds familiar? errr. no prizes for guessing...it is the desi version of the ‘Big Brother’....If the show is packaged well, and manage to attract good talent, it can gather and sustain popularity. But alas, the saturated human minds,in their quest to 'Indianise' the shows the Indian reality guys off late have started to look like...you know what...?.
See this examples....Last year's Lakme Fashion House -- the Star One reality series, where contestants got a chance to show their design sense and the winner bagging a crash course at the House of Versace ,has not had a second season yet.Fame Gurukul, which made Quazi and Ruprekha Banerjee touch the stars,by being one, too is yet to announce a second season.
Who but, in the end is making the fortune...?
With millions of people participating in real life -rise and fall competitions, the advertisers are all-out to sponsor such programs, and in turn making billions ....mmmm .... bad news for traditional advertising.. good news for the newer ways of marketing communication......
With every SMS charging 3 times more than am ordinary call and the whole nation fighting to get their chance to vote what more would an AirTel, Hutch or Reliance would be praying for?
With our feeble minds ,crying ( I admit, I almost did that for Ajay ) when the participants fail, when we jump in joy when the judges promise to back the weeping and exiting competitor to be his playback singerlater? ( I admit, my joy knew no bounds when Deepak Dev ,the Judge of Super star promised a song to the poignant ,and exiting Nidheesh). With our happiness knowing no bounds ,when these judges and the competitors started fighting like wild cats on stage(Fame Gurukul almost took it to ridiculous proportions) live...what else could be the optionto the producers, but more and more shows to the seemingly never satiated audience....
Reality shows galore...it is a plethora of fun, fear, frustration, fantasy, frantic search for money and even fanatisism....But let us not redefine the way the TG wants to be..Let us ponder over the way, marketer uses such shows as tools of communicating....
Remember Khul ja sim sim and the way products were paraded?
"The show was woven around product placement and so much effort and undue time had gone into it but it fell out because there were no set parameters...It was an excellent platform for brand placement but bigger clients like auto manufacturers were reluctant to place their products as prizes.... They preferred to stick to the commercial breaks"..... thus goes India television .com (for more http://india.indiantelevision.com/mam/special/y2k4/brandplacement.htm)....
The message, I guess is clear... Let the idiots sit there, glued on to their own boxes....let us make hay while the sun is out....
And Ajay, never mind what they say....Boys dont cry.....
I have just send an sms to SS
Tail piece:-
"Monica Lewinsky is hosting a new reality show for Fox . The show is called 'Mr. Personality,' where a woman will try to choose between 20 men who all have masks on and Monica Lewinsky offers dating advice".
"Well, who better to offer advice on choosing a guy without seeing his face than Monica Lewinsky." —Jay Leno
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