When reality shows started to make a mark on Indian television in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it seemed that they were going to bring a lot of raw talent to the mainstream.
But fast forward to 2022, we find that these shows have become a hub of sob stories, publicity stunts, emotional drama, and fake love angles. And some of the revelations are coming from the people who were at some time involved in the reality show arena.
Reality shows focusing on sob stories
Abhijeet Sawant, who is well-known for being declared the winner of Indian Idol Season I, too had complained about this.
He gave an example from his own days when he forgot the lyrics of a song. He said that the judges were kind enough to give him another chance. However, Abhijeet added, “But I can tell you with confidence that had it happened today, it would have been served to the audience with full dramatic effects of thunder and shock.”
The Indian Idol Season I winner added, “These days, the makers are more interested in whether the participant can polish shoes or how poor he is, rather than his talent. But the viewers are also responsible. Hindi language public is always hunting for more spice.”
Looking for emotional background stories
And then there are allegations of reality shows looking for emotional background stories instead of searching for talent.
In 2018, Naveen Kaushik, a reality singing show aspirant said, “I met two interesting aspirants: one med rep from an Indian village I don’t remember the name of,who dragged his right foot in a broken slipper. And another, who was blind in both eyes. And then I saw the crew make a merciless meal of both of these kind souls. First the vultures came with their mic and cameras to the blind man, who said he had a scene’s role in TheSlumdog Millionaire. They first asked him to give a little speech about the history and status of his blindness,how does it feel to be blind,and what have you.Then they asked about his family.He said he had a mother who was now dead, leaving him orphaned and all by himself. Sudden twinkle in crew’s eyes because they now had meaty content for a camera shot. They probed him in several ways on ‘what brings you here’. When none of his responses flew, they drafted a ‘response’on his behalf and read it out.Roughly, ‘I miss my mother and I wish she were here to see me, but I hope that when I sing tonight she can hear me up there’. They made him repeat this even as his voice trembled.(sic)”
Former singing reality show host Mini Mathur seemed to corroborate the use of emotional stories in reality shows. Mathur said, “This sucks. I wasn’t part of the 2012 season but I know most of what he has articulated is known to happen on reality tv. One of the reasons I bowed out. This incessant need to create false emotion.RIP Organic,pure TV.”
A few years ago, actress Sanya Malhotra had made similar remarks about a dance reality show. She said, “I was selected in the top 100 but didn’t go any further because you need to have a sad story to attract audiences’ sympathy. A few of the contestants lied that their parents aren’t allowing them to dance but the irony was that their parents came to drop them.”
The big TRPs race
We often relate TRPs with sensationalism on news channels and the awkward behaviour of TRP-hungry journalists. But reality shows aren’t far behind.
TOI quoted an anonymous source from a production house as saying, “Earlier, they’d primarily focus on the contestants’ talent, but over the years, as more reality shows started coming up, these shows needed something extra to gain the audience attention. To make the show more relatable, the contestants’ background was featured. However, when drama began to fetch TRPs, some shows began adding more of it – be it through contestants or even judges – and that’s how the focus shifted from talent to drama in these reality shows.”
Despite all allegations of being fake and scripted, talent-hunt reality shows continue to dominate TRP charts. This is the reason why they keep exploiting viewer sentiment day in and day out. Talent reality shows are therefore no longer about talent.