In lies we trust

Priyanko Sarkar / TNN / Aug 3, 2008, 02:22 IST

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Robert Galinsky has opened a 'reality television school' in New York to groom participants in reality shows. He retorted that reality television was not about reality; everything was "concocted and contrived".

It's a real sign of the fake times we live in. Three months ago, acting coach Robert Galinsky opened a 'reality television school' in New York to groom participants in reality shows. To those who looked askance, he retorted that reality television was not about reality; everything was "concocted and contrived".
Those who've been watching the antics of participants and judges on Indian reality shows couldn't agree more.Whether it was the staged fight between Chunky Pandey and Malaika Arora in Zara Nach Ke Dikha last week (where the anchors and participants were told to react with dismay, but being bad actors couldn't pull it off) or the game show Kaho Na Yaar Hai which seemed to be scripted from start to finish, reality shows are becoming tackier and tackier. The less said about the Ila Aruns and Himesh Reshmaiyyas, the better.
If the content isn't scripted, it's manipulated, admit people associated with reality shows. A former executive with Indian Idol says that judges are briefed about the role they must play in the show on a particular shoot. They are told, diplomatically, to pick on a good singer and give him bland comments. The contestants, on the other hand, are told not to take this lying down and to give it back to the judges if their performance is demeaned. It is a script ripe with dramatic possibilities, eventually leading to higher TRPs, the only concern of channels and producers.
Even the judges themselves are chosen with the aim of generating a clash of personalities, like Farah Khan, Anu Malik and Sonu Niigaam on the first season of Indian Idol. "Though judges always get 'suggestions' from the channel, they can't be forced to do something��thus, judges with totally different profiles are chosen, like Himesh Reshammiya, Aadesh Srivastav, Pritam and Shankar Mahadevan on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2008," says a TV veteran. "In trying to get their idea of music across, the rifts are created. There's no difference between these so-called reality shows and Ekta Kapoor's soaps."

The contestants, on their part, are often given lines by the channel to make them more "interesting", as Anamika Chaudhry, 13, who won the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs competition early this year, admits. Older participants are encouraged to be drama queens��an insider reveals that producers and channels are always on the lookout for 'characters' rather than talented artistes. "Some contestants try all the tricks of the trade. They try to get sympathy votes from the audience and come up with sob stories all the time," he says.

A contestant from the second season of Indian Idol gives the example of Rahul Vaidya who talked nonsense about fellow contestants; Antara Mitra who created melodrama by saying the first thing she would do if she won Idol was to buy spectacles for her grandma; and Neha Kakkar who kept yelling Jai Mata Di throughout the show. "People are willing to do anything to be in the frame. You don't need to tell Rakhi Sawant to spice up things in a reality show," he says.
Rakhi Sawant, who staged a walk-out out after losing a dance reality show last year, treads cautiously when questioned about manipulation. She begins by saying that like entertainment shows, there are a lot of retakes in a dance reality show but then clams up. "Nobody values the truth in this industry. Will I get my trophy back if I tell you the truth? Kyun mera mooh kharaab karwana chahte ho?" she asks.
She however, claims that Bigg Boss was true to life. "Bigg Boss is the baap of all reality shows. I lost but I am still saying this so because it is the truth. Those who say the show was scripted are maligning it because their own image went bad," she says. The potshot is evidently at co-participant Kashmera Shah, who had claimed that the show was fabricated and that everyone was assigned to play specific characters in it.
What do producers have to say about the charges? Payaol Patel, creative head of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs, says even her mother thinks reality shows are scripted. "We need to give people something new. We do highlight participants' characters but what a viewer sees on screen is actually how the participant really is. We also can't ask judges to act in our shows. Last season, Salman Khan stripped a contestant of his shirt because he was singing Salman's O o jaane jaana, a shirtless track. We can't force judges to do things like this," she says defensively.
Raghu Ram of MTV's Roadies and Splitsvilla sneers that the fabrication in reality shows is only set to go up. "A reality show must be completely transparent," he says. "It is a science and it has rules and parameters. The day a producer worth his salt does not depend on judges to fight each other to create interest, I will congratulate him."
(priyanko.sarkar@timesgroup.com)

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