Sunday, May 2, 2010

NEW AGE IDIOT BOX

Watching television was once leisure time for families. Family members used to sit for dinner and either watch 9'o clock news or house wives fought to switch over to Ekta Kapoor’s daily soaps which probably became the most popular TV series that our country has seen. Every housewife who had no other work was hooked to these telly soaps as they found a friend, a saas, nanad and a perfect bahu to identify with. All these ended last year when we had a new entertainment channel colors which came up with a brand new series of serials(which lead to the end of K series) Balika Vadhu, Uttaran and Laado all of which became popular.


But the real shift was reality TV. Welcome to the world of reality shows. Reality TV before 3 years was not known in our country. It is the place where the reality meets fiction. Reality shows made a big entry into the lives of the ordinary people since it helped them to get rid off the clutches of the monotonous soap serials. Strange that within such a short time we have seen reality shows of all kind. Reality shows are either in the form of talent hunts (like singing, dancing, acting etc), game shows, celebrity shows, makeover shows or confessions. Reality shows give a good platform or an opening to the talented ones. But very soon everyone realized that it was ten minute fame and a permanent success for very few who are really talented. India’s first reality music show was Indian Idol. Now the show is back with its fifth season. Who remembers contestants of earlier seasons?? Barring few whom the public is familiar with, courtesy their reappearances on television screens in various shows. We have had a swayamvar (have never really got who the contestants are??) and a next season of swayamvar. When we thought we can’t have anymore we had a series of unbelievable reality shows Iss jungle se mujhe bachao, pati, patni aur woh and sach ka saamna which led to parliamentary debates and people commting suicides. We have seen it all. But the question is how much real are these reality shows? Idiot Box was the name given to TV. Wonder what will be the new name??Not to forget that we have filmstars on TV now. After Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan hosted KBC we had every other actor and actress (many who have no work in films anymore) on out TV screens. For film promotions or self promotions we have everybody who is anybody on television. There is a whole new breed of stars who are now known as reality TV stars which includes Rakhi Sawant and Rahul Mahajan. Even news channels have seen a shift(though they still report news). The breaking news phenomenon in our Indian news channels has gripped the country. We want fresh news everytime we are infront of TV. We are bored of repeat of the same news and are constantly looking for new stories. Be it the live reporting of the 26/11 Taj rescue operation or the Sania-Shoaib saga or the IPL scam. Its been a year of breaking news. Now the question is there a need of break on news??


How important is TV for us?? We can’t live a single day without it I guess. Anything that strikes the emotional chord is an instant hit in our country. So what are we going to see next on TV??(just hope we do not have a reality show where people die for money, after all UK has seen Jade Goody’s death on TV ). We need something fresh, new and productive as well?? Till then we can sit back and enjoy what ever changing and varying shows that the television channels have to offer...........

2 comments:

  1. 1 wrong information here. indian idol ws nt d 1st reality show on TV. Roadies came b4 dat.. n if u r talking of singing shows, sa re ga ma also existd b4 indian idol...

    once again a great piece of writing 4m u...

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