Hi everyone!
Was recently watching one of the popular "talent hunt"s on TV, one claiming to look out for the singers of tomorrow, when I came to notice this amazing phenomena......I cal it a phenomena, because it later occurred to me that almost ALL these shows were doing the same thing. No, it's not about rigging the show or lobbying, not even about how the war between the judges could be (or most definitely is) rigged. No, that is all passe. The organisers have now hit upon a still more crass method of generating "interest". They are now delving deep into the family and personal secrets of the contestants, and flinging these "nuggets of information" at the audience, discussing them, blowing them out of proportion, and making the entire personal life and affairs of these gullible contestants a matter of public debate.
And sadly, the contestants comply. Sadder still, the judges, who are "respected" names of the entertainment industry, play party to the charade.
The competitions revolve round which contestant has given which other contestant a, horror of horrors, red rose!! Or, who is falling for whom, and worse still, who the judges think is falling for whom.......frankly, anything that would add any amount of yellow journalistic tinge to the show. Only, in this case, the entire affair revolves round people who have no face value beyond the ambit of these contests. Not that I support such inane discussions about more "known" faces, but come on, lets face it: an Abhishek falling for an Aishwarya is definitely more interesting, and worthy of mention than a XYZ reportedly falling for a ABC on the sets of the show.
And frankly, is anyone even interested? That was the first question that had come to my mind. And I must say, I knew the answer even before I sought to find it. YES. We are interested. Our dinner table conversations revolve round these trivialities, and more. We live and thrive on these information. About why the girl next door is seeing the guy she is seeing, and how the neighbours fight everyday, and WHY, and did the little girl pass her class test, and yes, how much did they pay for the new piece of furniture?
WE ARE A VOYEURISTIC PEOPLE. We thrive on knowing "secrets" about others, and nosing in on to areas beyond our access.
And then, we try and put up a sham of not knowing, and better still, of not being interested.
How else would one justify the phenomenal popularity of the soaps that do the rounds in our TV? Or even, the other shows that exist on the basis of how much information on the personal affairs of those connected to the soaps and serials can be supplied to the audience?
And who is to blame? The TV channel management, or we, as audience? For once, let us forget all shams and delve into ourselves. Let us see and evaluate what is for exactly what is. We, as a people, thrive on gossip. We LOVE to read about scandals relating to our movie stars and other public figures. We devour every scrap of article that is written about Amitabh-Rekha, Aishwarya-Salman, Saurav-Nagma, etc, etc, etc.
But we are not DUMB. There is a limit to which they can "sell" titillation to us. We are definitely not interested in knowing the details of every Tom, Dick and Harry that shows its face on screen, and God knows there are just too many nowadays.
For, the channels should realise, every being that shows his/her face on screen does NOT become an icon. It takes much more that 20 minutes of airtime to become one. It takes a LOT more to become a personality whose personal details would interest us, as the audience.
4 comments:
the unfortunate part is that the media has discoverd that dumbness is the lowest common denominator and hence gr8est revenue generator . so .... wat else can be said... only way to prevent this is to take the audience maturity to the next level. anyways gud observation
nice oservation.But i dare say that the audience is interested. It is not only interested to peep into the personal life of celebrities but even every tom dick and harry. The point that i am making is that i have observed closely how people get interested to know the undercover(pun intended) part of a stranger's life, these guys atleast are coming in the tv program for a year now. they are no more a stranger. They are infact idols. People eat later but watch this gullible creatures fighting over (rigged but definitely intrigues audiences, isn't it?)first. Sony is fighting hard with Rupert Murdoch's star. they don't want him to dominate as he has done everywhere. so for sony, trp matters more than a person's life, forget about catering to his interest. And scandal and sensational things sell. otherwise how come a channel like aaj tak recieves the best news channel award thrice in a row. they are a huge business organization. but just have a look at their news and more so on their methodology of presentation. one has to take real pains to watch that. No i am wrong. People watch it and love it. that is why they are at the top! Everything has become a product now. A commodity. And citizens have become consumers. This is just the start, do not expect any change of winds blowing in this doldrum part of the world.
The fact that people are liking Chak De, Chini Kam and the like prove that sex and titillation in media are not the only sellers. They are the easiest recipe for an entertainment commodity, not the best, and does not click every time.
The challenge is to bring in a new theme, a new approach, a new story every time. Say the story of an underdog: Muslim woman from a conservative Kiddirpore family wanting to be a boxer to take care of her family, a love story that blossoms in the backdrop of industry versus agriculture debate in Bengal, film that exposes the high profile engineering education life in an IIT, and the like. Bound to click.
yes, stories like this would definitely click, but if only made in a palatable manner. we have grown out of the manoj kumar age, and young people today just cannot be lured or lulled by completely unrealistic representations. Only hope that more and more film makers come up with stories like these
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