Fame Gurukul, Fame X, Super Singer, Big Boss, SaReGaMaPa, Jhalak Dikhlaja, Nach Baliye - the list goes on.
What is common amongst all these?
The brazenly obvious answer would be hunger for fame and money. In this country of 100 karor, to make a name for yourself is as difficult as India's chances of winning a gold medal in Azlan Shah Tournament. So why not take the shorte route to fame through these TV channels.
show me the money baby!!
The prize is getting bigger and better. Each game show boasts of a very big prize money, which can seduce any saint out of his ascetic life. Sing and earn money (by no means I meant begging), Dance and earn money (again, I am not talking about tamasha), live with strangers in a home with camera everywhere and you can take home loads of wealth. Paise ki liye saala kuch bhi karega. Paisa fek aur tamasha dekh. There was even a hunt for Item girl for some movie. Somebody please go and tell them that one Rakhi Sawant is enough for this birth.
Siyaram's gift hamper, Jaipaan cooking accessories and Air India return tickets are things from past. Swanky cars (though there are chances that winner might not be eligible for a driving licence), flats in posh localities, Cruise trips, and yes sometimes Date with Arjun Rampal (I see you man) are the in things. Times are changing and you never know what is there in offer at any game show. You just can not resist. And there is always loads of hard cash. apna sapna money money [if anyone has seen that movie, let me know about it]. Jerry Maguire would surely die for some of these shows.
Naam me kya rakha hai
Apparently there is lot of name and fame also involved. Though these claims are as controversial as Mika's liplock with Rakhi. How many names can you recall? Not many huh.. I can recall only one name - Abhijeet Sawant (want to know why? I watched a very sad video of his yesterday on cable tv, red hairs... yukkk). I think we will need Google to find out about Kazi (please dont ask "Kazi who?") Rest all, they are just like the product of one night stand with fame. Public has really short memory, and they need ever performing heroes. Clearly these game shows can not serve the purpose. Jab tak game show hai, tab tak naam hai. Uske baad all are back to apne mohalle ke gurgo ke saath. Haan ek fayada jaroor hai, the winner will get his shaadi done soon, and also he cna easily perform in gaon ke mele.
Talent my foot...
Are the really a talent hunt? If you think so, you must be still high on the daroo you drank on saturday night. Today every Tom, Dick and Harry is singing on TV, every Champa, Chameli and Basanti is dancing on tunes of some raunchy dance numbers. Small time actors from idiot box are made celebrities for the TRPs. Arre even Baba Sehgal is termed as super star. Dont forget the Chunky Pandeys and Rahul Roys (please ignore the spellings, I dont keep a track of their latest way of spelling their names) After seeing some contestants from Fame X, I felt like taking a recorder and start singing. Tunes I hum in bathroom are much better than what they were singing on the stage. Please dont ask about their dancing talent. Hamare mohalle ka paan vala lala can matkaofy his kamar much better than half the contestants. After seeing Carol and Ragini, I know you dont need to be proficient in any language, communication skill or personality trait. Manners kis chidiya ka naam hai? Jindagi jhandwa, phir bhi ghamandwa.
Then whatitiz??
Angrez hamesha kahte rahe, devide and rule. Our politicians found more peaceful solution. Play with the emotion of mass and enjoy the power. So now here we are, sharing their pain and joy with the whole nation. Each game show today will surely have participants craving to share their sad stories. They come from Assam, Bangal and Bihar ke chote gaons. Unke gaon me bijali nahi hoti hai. These all public needs to know. Kashmir ke ek garib kalakaar ke ghar me kya hua, this is materia for flash news on Aaj Tak. Rupaali keeps crying in front of cameras coz she knows each drop of tear equals an extra thousand votes for her opponents (sometimes the calculations are done the other way, voting is done for elimination.) Some kid's parents make a big show on the sets of a singing competition and whole nations sympathises with them. Community centers are flooded with requests to vote for some x member who is participating in some talent hunt.
Ek dookhti nerve hoti hai insaan ke sharir me - emotions. He wants to see his hero doing things which he himself could not do. He want to see a smile on poor guys face, he wants to see the unthinkable to happen, he wants all his dreams to come true. He sees his own daughter in the girl winning in the dance competitions, coz his own girl could never dance even on her brother's marriage. Raato raat Abhijeet Sawant poore desh ka beta ho jaata hai. Amit Sana ke gale ke liye saare desh me ilaaj dhoondhe jaate hain. Hamare ghar me bahut betiyan hai phir bhi we keep looking outside coz their success make us forget the failure of our owns. And this drema world can be created only on TV through these shows. tears and joys - show anything and TRPs are your girlfriend. They dont understand that the producers for these programs are making them fool. We never care as long as hamari gali ka ladka jeet raha hai. Jis din vo haar jata hai, we smell something foul, curse everyone for somedays, and then some other neighbour's cousin's daughter's friend's girl makes her first appearance on anther show. The six degree relation theory can be easily proved here. The cycle continues thus.
show me the hidden treasure...
There is one subtle and cleverly hidden motiff attached to these talent and reality shows. The unlimited money game of sms. Each one of these events prompts viewers to vote through sms and save their favorite participant from elimination. And amazingly, thousands of people do sms also. And they do it week after week, month after month, season after season. The minimum cost for each such sms is 3Rs. Clearly there is a lot of money involved here. And always, some part of it goes to the channelwalas. In the end, they are the people who are raking mullahs. Aam janata apni khoon pasine ki kamai ko asie hi emotions ke chakkar me aakar sms par waste kar deti hai. God please give them some brain.
Wake up people. Please dont waste your money in smsing for vote (against Rakhi Sawant. She is too good yaar, I want her to win)
Reinventing myself, once again
3 years ago
27 comments:
I dont disagree with you, but you can sort of look at the positive side of it. Participants are getting money, and I guess now people have larger number of platforms where they can showcase their talents. I am sure some of this might be really talented and they would get eventually recognized and make a name for themselves, which else otherwise would probably have never happened.
yea, that is one aspect. And it surely is worth it then. But the amount of money and emotions involved are hugh. Is it worth to do it on someone else's expense?
hey dude. This is hilarious man. Also thought provoking. Come on, we need more Rakhi Sawants. Her interview with Pooja Bedi was so entertaining that she should quit being an item girl and only give these interviews for a living.
KBC should be in the honourable mentions category here. I like the way it is conducted and the way it makes money. It only plays on your greed/confidence/luck :)
oh yes.. How can I ever forget KBC. My poor memory.
yahi to duniya hai bapu... jiske paas paisa hai, woh sms karega, jiske paas nahi woh nahi karega... finally it involves a lot of money transaction what is called business directly or indirectly. Koi apne maze ke liye spend kar raha hai and koi usse earn kar raha hai...
@Deepak: thats wat you and me understand. Does the baniya of your gali understand the logic behind it. His daughter would surely have voted for Kazi. Baniya does all kinds of ghotala and mehnat to earn every penny and then unkonwingly loses it. He fights in his family coz he is unhappy over elimination of some rahul. Is it all worth it? Atleast he needs to know the truth behind everything.
Agreed that unknowingly, his money is lost... but there is something missing there. He inspite of being such a intelligent person, he couldn't deliever some good qualities of atleast the good-bad decision making to his daughter.
Yes.. He could not. He is not an intelligent person in your and mine definition. All he has concerned his whole life is his small time shop and petty ways of saving some money for his daughter's wedding. So in one sense, the urgent need of time is that he needs to be taught about the reality. If he knew all this, surely his kid would have been educated enough. After that if he knowingly does it, then nobody can be blamed for that.
Baniya and not intelligent... i don't agree. :)
I agree in one respect that with all these programs getting attention, because of advertizements being shown in between, prices of essential thing going high. That is one where the poorer getting poorer.
Yes, The divide is getting wider; thats the whole face of economy. It will need something very redical to change that aspect.
Dude.. If some people are making money either by playing with public emotions or may be with one-night stand with the fame then wat's wrong in that.. You don't want money to get stored at one place or in one hand.. Channelising of money is very important and if by sending one sms a person is contributing towards it what's wrong in that.. U earn money to spend, don't u.. Gone are the days when people used to put gold in the matka and store inside the mitti.. The faster the money moves the better it is for economy... Moreover show casing their talent or tears whatever it may be and entertaining a good percentage of our 100 karor junta and then earning some money I feel is much better than getting an exorbitant amount of money that we get by browsing the internet, fixing our own bugs :)
Mr Economist Vatsy, its not economy. Money is moving just in one direction. From poor junta to rich producers. Those channel wala are not sitting on chairs which do not have cushion. They pile uo notes to make up for it.
True that there is a need to enjoy your money, but there is something called sensibility that needs to be taken care of.
Playing with emotions is not at all acceptable. They are portraying as if they are making stars out of nowhere. But think about this, how many of them would survive in this tinsel town. They are shown dazzling dreams and then pulled in the mirage. And then left in the mid of nowhere. Ek baar sher aadmi ka khoon chakh leta hai naa to phir vo adamkhor ho jaata hai. These people are making such Aadamkhor shers. Remember viva, where are they now? They are misguiding the younger generation and obviously the elder ones also.
there is something called sensibility that needs to be taken care of.
I totally agree with that, but you don't vote for every tom dick and harry.. U vote for the people whom u like.. u vote for the person who u want to win..or may be u vote against the person who u hate..
And by the way those who vote are not poor, they are just lower middle class or middle class.. They in any case are not becoming poor.. the economy is on the uphill and so are they.. The section which is still on the downhill don't use mobile phones or for that matter they don't have the utmost previlege of watching reality shows.. 3rs sms which u r talking of is not going to help any of the people from the section i'm talking about.. If not in sms then it'll go off as a talktime cost.. Moreover the producer who is making money thru all this might do lil investment or may be donate something (just to save his ass from the IT dept.) and thus helping the economy and the under-previleged section..
I'm not saying all this is right but at the same time i'm not saying it is wrong. Evryone has the right to make money be it by fooling others.. Don't you think we software engineers also fool our customers.. Dude na baap bada na bhaiya hai sabse bada rupaiyah..
Yaar.. I think you have serious doubt about Lucent's business ethics policy. :)
I know its not the lower class which is getting fooled by these channels. But not even a singel soul should be fooled this way. What if they are middle class. IF they have so much money they can donate it.
And those producers donating any money - another distant dream.
Its people like them only who coined the line "na baap bada na bhaiya hai sabse bada rupaiyah.."
Nice topic and very well written buddy. But sach sach bata tune kitne sms bheje hain RAKHI SAWANT ko bachaane ke liye???
yaar.. abhi tak to vo itne danger me kabhi aayi hi nahi. This time she is up against the tragedy queen, so i will surely send some sms to save her.
Long live Rakhi.
As i told you these days no one stores their gold inside the mitti.. Money moves man.. They either spend it in lavish living or invest in something and occasionally do some social work.. In any case the money is moving..I'll just give u one small example.. U go to a coffee day.. For one cup of coffee u pay more than 25 bucks(they have recently increased the rates ;) ).. Now aren't they playing with ur emotions.. The same coffee at some other little sidey place will cost u hardly 5 bucks.. But u'll not go with ur gf to that sidey place..Obviously u'll prefer the coffee day.. Aren't u wasting ur money then..?? Simple thing is u earn to spend and not to hold the money with u.. Sometimes u spend it rationally and sometimes u don't.. And to add onto it some money u get for what u deserve and sometimes u get for what u don't deserve.. The world is round u see.. Whatever goes has to comeback and whatever comes back has to go...By the way I really wanted Roopali to stay in the MTV roadies but that reality show did not support any voting thing :( And now she is out of roadies.. I really miss her ....
Its not about you and me. Its about the guy who does not go to coffee day, who can not afford that. Its about the common man. When I go to CCD, I know I am paying much more that the drink actually costs, but that is a different case altogether. Here game shows are playing with the emotions. You know in one of these game show, one of the participant got bogey voting done through sms and won many a rounds. This is the whole economics.
Jindagi jhandwa, phir bhi ghamandwa.too good Bapu.
Bapu with Ekta Kapoor's "K" factor slowly loosing the grip on TRP ratings Reality Shows were bound to surface on Indian television.I agree that the amount of masala of melodrama is a bit high but that is how things sell in India.How can one forget the picture of Indian women portrayed by Ekta Kapoor.The ideal bahu wearing heavy Rajastahani sarees and doing aarti in in the morning.People of India whether middle class or lower class are happy visualizing the same stuff in their own life and become happy.The same applies to the reality shows.People were happy that a common guy Abhijit Sawant was able to raech heights that they dream about.I would say nothing wrong in it.The quality has gone down because increased quantity but i seriously beleive the figures about SMS's received is extrapolated and results are rigged.I stil dont know how Bani is still there on roadies?
Talking about economic aspect of it then i would say that Vatsal's funda have just been a bouncer for me.You are looking at this with a view of microfinance which makes u say that a poor is just spending his money on nothing but if u view it with Microfinance then that money might be used for the poor in indirect ways.If a chaiwala or paan waala wont spend money on sending a SMS he would spend money on watching a equally bad Sharukh Khan's movie
At some point of time in life we all do lil emotional blackmailing.. As a child don't we used to cry to get some chocolates or that new town in the market infront of our parents.. Weren't we playing with emotions then..
And if talking about bogus voting tell me where it does not happen.. Jiski lathi uski bhains...Yeh pratha to sadiyo se chalti aa rahi hai and I don't think its gonna change in anyway..
To bhaiya reality show dekho, aansu bahao, taliya bajao aur ha agar aapko mera gaana pasand aaya to don't forget to vote for me.. my no. is 1600-134-134 and my code is 3 ya please type in vivek and send it to 2323...
Pehle ke zamane mein log gana pasand aane par paise fekte the aur aajkal sms.. Duniya badal rahi hai.. par hamare taur tarike wohi hai ;)
hmmm.. I am kinda speechlessn now.. Will think about it again sometime...
How can u say that they are not doing something for the society.. I mean if someone from the so called aam-junta is becoming rich and is getting a platform to show-case his talent , isn't that a social service.. Tell me if Fame-gurukul wasn't there , Kazi kabhi itna famous ban pata kya.. kabhi itne paise bana pata kya.. Now that he has money he definitely has improved his lifestyle and that of his near and dear ones... Basically the whole aam junta has contributed and made him rich.. (though its another thing that large part of it goes to the producers ;) )
As per my latest knowledege anthony has won the roadies ... He had disclosed it to some of his close frends and apparently they have disclosed it on the net.. and even i hate Bani..
Roopali I Miss you :(
After reading this post, i had to get back and research for what exactly was being written about. So after some consultation, I got the point. I thot it was only prits, but now i see a bunch of u guys ranting and raving about how you are not getting to watch cricket and have to stick arnd watching big boss. Or even better, are fans of the show. anyways from what i hear and understand, the poor participants are in need, some in need of clothes,some in need of money, a few others in need of manners. so while they are all sitting at home, waiting for work to come by, why not have some fun and make a fool of one's self and earn some quick money.
The poor losers dont understand that what they get is just a fraction of a fraction. Anyways, as long as the junta is there for this kinda entertainment,[the concept of a guy and gal living together is frowned upon, but when it is on tv its ok] there will be more shows. And the standards will go down. With the media hype and people to watch and people like us to write and debate about it, why wouldn't they?
@j: you just hit the nail. I enjoyed the discussion a lot though. And m surely looking forward for more such timepass. BTW Rakhi has expressed her desire to appear in Big Brother and show off her two piece collection their. I am certainly for it...
Well Rightly Said !!!
A very thought provoking, hillarious and contemperory write up.
But amidst all this I realized you are falling for Rakhi Sawant !!!!! ;-)
Jindagi jhandwa, phir bhi ghamandwa.. this is my favourite dialogue.till now u have nopt voted for the rakhi.i will make sure that u do that.afterall u are such a big fan of that show.
In my opinion everything has its time and the reality shows are having there's now. Atleast they are better than KK. tell me who put 2 "aa" and 2 "jj" in the Kaajjal. arent they doing wrong to society by spreading the supertitions. The reality shows are no better, they are rigged and half of the time i think there is script written for the famous ones. But some common man are becoming famous and rich and this is increasing the viewership and the TRP's of the show and producers are inturn getiing more richer
@kauts: you got it right dude. I am in love with her. If abhishek nahi hota naa, i would have gone and proposed to her. But alas... :)
Thanks for the valuable comment anyways.
@ravi: you know it all dude. I will surely vote for her. Though i know she will win this game show without my help.
by the way did you ever give a thought about changing your name to Raavi. might work. I am seriously thinking changing mine to PritS (yea mind it, the S will be in CAPS, the inspiration comes from Rocky S)
And about the TRPs and money, we all have seen it. Its just too obvious.
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