Ever since the concept of reality TV has started picking up in India, 4-5 years back, it seems as if our nation has got a new national anthem. Everyone, people from all age groups seem to be smitten with the reality show bug. Fame, money, glitz, glamour and not to forget instant result is lucrative enough to grab anyone's attention.
No wonder why? Every next person wants to be the next Indian idol, the next MTV Roady, or the next Cinestar. Fame, never used to be just a word, people used to work really hard for it. But now fame has become all so accessible and INSTANT. All thanks to this emergence of Reality TV.
But what do you think… about Reality TV? Yeah! I have been thinking about this topic since a long time; have had several arguments sometimes with couple of friends and lot many times with myself trying to figure out what do people working on Reality TV trying to come up with?
I have my firm viewpoint about it which title of my post would’ve explained. People claim it is another form of creativity and entertainment. I agree as far as the talent hunt programs are concerned--though they have been commercialized as well, but still they are good as they give young budding talent a platform to hone their skills. It is the new age voyeuristic TV shows like Emotional atyachaar, Splitsvilla, and several others that I have problems with. I think they are cheap---how could one define intruding in someone else's personal space, watching intimate and private moments of their life as fun or entertainment.
It is shows like these which give me an impression that suddenly the word privacy has vanished from our lives. People are willing to share everything, right from their intimate moments to thoughts, for those five minutes of fame. Yeah! They will. I really don't know whether it is the charm of being on TV so big that people do whatever comes their way to grab it or has the word(definition) of the entertainment undergone a drastic change. Couples propose, fight abuse and even end up marrying on national TV (PS: memories of the few clips of the two swayamvars I watched by mistake still haunt me.)
People keep telling me, “Come on! Come out of your cocoon sweetheart. Your theories are dated and so are you. Voyeuristic TV is just another mode of entertainment. Nothing else. And if you don’t like it just turn off the TV.”
Perhaps they have a valid point to make. My theories and the ideologies are actually dated. Why bother so much analyzing and saying this mode of TV is bad or whatever. I can simply do what they insist--switch off the TV. This is what I do.
Still I stay firm on my ground; reality TV has died and has given way to the cheap mode of entertainment—voyeuristic TV that is.I don't find these new age voyeuristic TV shows any good. They are just cheap.
Okay, I know I am no moral police or whatever and have no right to claim what should be shown on TV and what should be not. I am not trying that either. Ours is a free country; people can show whatsoever they want on the TV and viewers can similarly choose what they wanna watch. My only problem is the sudden demise of Creative and meaningful TV. Everyone is only producing shows which sell, be it cashing in on the emotions of viewers with shows like Balika Vadhu or ...fill in any of those female-centric serials (agreed, all of serials running on the telly are women-centric), or be it selling sex, gossip or intruding into the someone's life.This is what the rising popularity of such shows tells me. Had they not been popular amongst masses, directors wouldn’t have come again and again with new voyeuristic TV shows.
Is it an outcome of our imitation of the west or is it the fact that the creative and talented bunch of people—directors, actors, writers, music directors—are left with nothing else better to create. Perhaps it is both. Whatever it is, it hurts—death of creativity always does.
No wonder why? Every next person wants to be the next Indian idol, the next MTV Roady, or the next Cinestar. Fame, never used to be just a word, people used to work really hard for it. But now fame has become all so accessible and INSTANT. All thanks to this emergence of Reality TV.
But what do you think… about Reality TV? Yeah! I have been thinking about this topic since a long time; have had several arguments sometimes with couple of friends and lot many times with myself trying to figure out what do people working on Reality TV trying to come up with?
I have my firm viewpoint about it which title of my post would’ve explained. People claim it is another form of creativity and entertainment. I agree as far as the talent hunt programs are concerned--though they have been commercialized as well, but still they are good as they give young budding talent a platform to hone their skills. It is the new age voyeuristic TV shows like Emotional atyachaar, Splitsvilla, and several others that I have problems with. I think they are cheap---how could one define intruding in someone else's personal space, watching intimate and private moments of their life as fun or entertainment.
It is shows like these which give me an impression that suddenly the word privacy has vanished from our lives. People are willing to share everything, right from their intimate moments to thoughts, for those five minutes of fame. Yeah! They will. I really don't know whether it is the charm of being on TV so big that people do whatever comes their way to grab it or has the word(definition) of the entertainment undergone a drastic change. Couples propose, fight abuse and even end up marrying on national TV (PS: memories of the few clips of the two swayamvars I watched by mistake still haunt me.)
People keep telling me, “Come on! Come out of your cocoon sweetheart. Your theories are dated and so are you. Voyeuristic TV is just another mode of entertainment. Nothing else. And if you don’t like it just turn off the TV.”
Perhaps they have a valid point to make. My theories and the ideologies are actually dated. Why bother so much analyzing and saying this mode of TV is bad or whatever. I can simply do what they insist--switch off the TV. This is what I do.
Still I stay firm on my ground; reality TV has died and has given way to the cheap mode of entertainment—voyeuristic TV that is.I don't find these new age voyeuristic TV shows any good. They are just cheap.
Okay, I know I am no moral police or whatever and have no right to claim what should be shown on TV and what should be not. I am not trying that either. Ours is a free country; people can show whatsoever they want on the TV and viewers can similarly choose what they wanna watch. My only problem is the sudden demise of Creative and meaningful TV. Everyone is only producing shows which sell, be it cashing in on the emotions of viewers with shows like Balika Vadhu or ...fill in any of those female-centric serials (agreed, all of serials running on the telly are women-centric), or be it selling sex, gossip or intruding into the someone's life.This is what the rising popularity of such shows tells me. Had they not been popular amongst masses, directors wouldn’t have come again and again with new voyeuristic TV shows.
Is it an outcome of our imitation of the west or is it the fact that the creative and talented bunch of people—directors, actors, writers, music directors—are left with nothing else better to create. Perhaps it is both. Whatever it is, it hurts—death of creativity always does.
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