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8月30日 Reality shows: How real can they be? As consumers of TV viewing, we are being subjected to a slew of idiotic "reality" shows. Some hover around the match-making decisions of a starlet (Rakhi ka Swayamvar),most are youth based programs where individuals are pitted against each other under varying circumstances ( MTV Roadies, Exhausted), and some feature infamous individuals of dubious nature (aren't all infamous people dubious in nature?) surviving either in a house (Big Brother), or trying to survive in a jungle ( Iss Jungle se mujhe Bachao; a straight take off from the American series, "I'm a Celebrity...Get me out of Here!). Reality shows have smelt blood...and they know they have a gullible audience who will lap up any crap that they dish out. Especially if they feature a character or characters who have a claim to fame through doubtful means. To me, a "reality show" can never be truly showcase reality, as the participants are put in an environment specially created for the program. They know that the cameras are rolling 24*7,and that they have to behave in a certain way which allows them to enjoy the limelight. Most reality shows are copies of the ones already in circulation in the US and UK. They became a hit in India especially after the Bollywood beauty Shilpa Shetty hit the jackpot in the UK reality show, The Big Brother House, after being crowned (by default), for being a very decent human being in the face of Jade Goody's racist and insulting remarks. By remaining mute, the so-far unnoticed Shilpa Shetty laid her hands on a jackpot prize, and even the hand of one of Britain's most successful business men, Raj Kundra. Thanks to this, Shilpa today is an industry in her own right, running charitites, owning a castle or two in Scotland, sponsoring and owning cricket teams, and getting seen at the right places with the right people.
Today I watched one of my favourite shows on the Nat Geo channel. It goes with the title," Jailed Abroad". If only our reality show hosts and participants watched this, would they really get to know what survival under excruciating circumstances mean. For instance, until today, I had not heard of Martin and Gracie Burnham. The couple, who were American missionaries, were kidnapped for 376 days in the Phillipines by a lesser known terror outfit called the Abu Sayyaf group. The sort of harrowing tales that the survivors of these extraordinary events live to tell, cannot be paralleled by the so-called reality shows which seem to be the flavour of the season on TV. At most,they can pass off as a poor mimicry of the real thing. I truly wish that such mindless shows would come to an end, and in fact, I think they are already on their way out. In one of the jungle shows for example, a participant was made to stick his head into a jar full of creepy crawlies, and when he emerged,he was bitten black and blue, with their venom coursing through his body. Today's papers also cited a participant of a Pakistani reality show, who died while performing one of the tasks in deep water.
The big question remains, that what more could the ever hungry, sensation seeking audience possibly derive more thrills from, after the craze for reality shows is over?
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