When Gajendra Singh created Antakshri, a reality show, out of India’ home- grown favorite picnic and parlor game, in the year 1993, no one ever thought that one day such reality shows would be the life line of dipping TRPs of the TV channels which grew like anything in the past decade, more than 60 of them are just for news only. Surprisingly all are indigenous. Singer from B- towns tried their luck in the yet another reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa in 1995. Then came the giant reality show- KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI (KBC). With Amitabh Bachchan as host, who was then a fading star, gambled through this show to re-establish himself in which he got a bumper success. It was this show which not only changed the host’s life but transformed Indian television, promising fame and fortune to the couch potatoes. The channel STAR PLUS, which aired KBC, was the channel # 1 with an audience of 22 million in 2001 which soared to 61 millions in the year 2005. The telecom servers were streamlined to confront a peak load of 4,000 SMSes per second traffic. Making heroes out of nobodies, it was reality television boom which put mass into mass media. From 5 crore votes of first INDIAN IDOL finale, the response heaped to 7 crore in the third edition. With a reality show in almost every genre like singing (SAREGAMAPA), dance (JHALAK DIKHLA JA), comedy (GREAT INDIAN LAUGHTER CHALLENGE) and even for weight loss (BIGGEST LOSER JEETEGA). It is reality shows countering the SAAS BAHU drama of the Indian television which has the maximum viewership. More and more format are being discovered and invented for reality shows. Some a made- in – India formats and many being licensed from abroad. Now that India is waiting for a yet another generation of reality shows, broadcasters have scrubbed trade shows for the next big thing over the television. Even in the western countries, there is a critical situation in drama in the soap and successful shows have picked up reality television traits like THE OFFICE and LOST.
Archive for May 20th, 2008
Posted in 
THE CHURNING POINT
May 20th, 2008 
krishna A new generation was churned out with the largest people’s movement in the independent India which shook Indira Gandhi’s government. It also tried to instill probity in the political life. In the year 1974, “JP Movement was started by Jayaprakash Narayan, a charming and fiery leader, part of India’s struggle for Independence, against the authoritarian rule of the Congress, led by Indira Gandhi. He spearheaded this campaign at the fag end of his long political career and it represents a maturation of his political thinking and action. He remembered and realized, during this movement, the power of the thought what Ram Manohar Lohia thought was his true potential—“JP can move the nation, provided the mover does not vacillate”. His role as the leader of the movement earned him the title of Loknayak—People’s Leader. This movement provided the people an important channel through which they could express their resentment over many issues—rising prices, unemployment, food scarcity and corruption. Political dissent, public anger, the energy of the youth, and a vision for a society built on lokniti (peoples’ participation), rather than rajniti (political power) powered the movement. The origins of the movement also lay in the Nav Nirman Movement of the youth in Gujarat in 1973-74, which was directed against corruption in the Congress government led by Chimanbhai Patel, with a demand for the government to be dismissed and the assembly dissolved. Narayan brought together these diverse sentiments and differing political positions into a mass movement that was clearly anti-Congress, striving to establish the rule of law. The ideology of the movement developed while dealing with the Naxalites from 1969 onwards. He felt that Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Movement had failed to bring about change and had accepted the Congress misrule. The answer to this was a non-violent struggle, by the people, for a total revolution where Narayan would fight against the abuse of democratic institutions.
