Monday, August 25, 2008

Reality Bites - have one have all

One great success gives birth to many wannabes. Yes, I am talking about the umpteen reality shows on Indian Television. Each channel has its own competition on:
  • singing
  • dancing
  • game show
  • laughter challenge

Last night I was watching a show called Kabhie Kabhie Pyaar Kabhie Kabhie Yaar...and couldn't help but wonder what made them start the show? The same TV stars appear in all reality shows (except for music shows). In fact there haven't been many successful shows without celebrities. So now you find Kashmira Shah on every dance show. Seems she has become a pro reality show participant!

Another thing that makes me think is - how do these judges come up with a different comments on each performance! They surely need to be expressive and creative to be able to ramble out opinions without hurting anyone as such.

The formula for a great program lies in the right balance between entertainment value, originality and authenticity. While entertainment value and originality depend on the concept, the authenticity relies a lot on how genuine and honest the developers are in promoting the right people. Another big asset for such a show are its judges. The more they know about their field, the more consturctive the feedback and the more accurate their readings. Laughter Challenge on Star is losing its authenticity because Siddhu is laughing his ass off every joke! There is no constructive feedback being given and there is no threshold for a performance. The level of content on this show has gone down rather than picking up with every season. I mean move on from the same condescending tone of talking between couples, the same double meaning jokes which have less originality and more vulgarity! Today's generation doesn't even identify with their humor. They need to get out of their 70's and 80's style of talking about less clad women, and troubling housewives!

It's high time we get to see some good shows with some serious content - liked by the modern, educated audience.

4 You Spoke:

Renu said...

yeah, Now a days one cant differentiate one show from the other, judges also are juggling from obne show to other. I dont like kashmira at all. sometimes the participant are just not upto the standard.Like you rightly said Sidhu is always laughing uproariously, sometimes before the joke evn, same about Archana Puran singh-laughing loudly all the time.
Fatigue has started setting in all these shows,time they removed them. Even in Big boss II, none of the participant is a real celebrity, so that one feels like watching, who wants to see those small time actors what they do in their homes.

DeeplyDip said...

@renu
Thanks for dropping by. Yes I feel it's time for the Indian television to mature and show better quality programs. I'm sure there is enough audience out there who is starving for some home grown quality content. All we need is a channel willing to try something new.

my space said...

All the reality shows are a poor caricature of our society..empty,hollow, no substance and pathetic!!I have even stopped watching sa re ga ma-a favourite once upon a time..

DeeplyDip said...

@myspace: I like VOI better than sa re ga ma but then they have made it more of a state level compt. now. With loads of channels launching we def need better programs rather than a re-hash of some basic ideas on each channel.

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