Long live the reality

At the end of it all, it was a battle between the haves and the have-nots. Sounds profane for a reality show but this is how the finale of "Amul Star Voice of India" turned out to be. After Lucknow's Harshit Saxena netted majority votes in the East, West and South zones, in a quirky turn of fate that reminded of a Bollywood pot boiler, Ludhiana's Ishmeet Singh walked away with glory on the basis of overwhelming votes from North zone. Though both the finalists belonged to the North zone, it appeared that the prosperity of Punjab and Haryana proved decisive in the sms voting. In an emotionally charged atmosphere, reminding of a Parliamentary poll, recent blasts in Uttar Pradesh were also held responsible for the drop in votes for Harshit.

A scribe from Kanpur said, "UP doesn't believe in judging talent by sms voting. Did Amitabh Bachchan ever need such support to rule Bollywood?" To his credit, Harshit played down the impact, but producer Gajendra Singh, who also hails from eastern Uttar Pradesh admitted, "May be", Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar don't have the economic prosperity to spend money on sms for somebody from their region. In the same vein he clarified that Ishmeet got good enough votes from other zones as well, that is why the extra push from North Zone turned the tide in his favour. However, the grumpiness about the voting system continued as Abhas who walked away with the judges' choice award said he bore the brunt as his hometown Jabalpur doesn't have enough mobile phones in comparison to other parts of the country.

Playing down the charges of regionalism and manufactured reality, Prem Kamath, Vice President, Marketing, Star India said, "Each one of the final 12 was good enough to win the contest. In a high strung contest, there are always chances of judges having their favourites and people voting according to their region. It reflects our social fabric…we tried our best to keep the voting foolproof."

On the reality issue, Prem admitted the primary factor was to please the advertisers. "We achieved that goal, as on any given day 16 million viewers watched the show. You have to see it from the perspective of the overall television scenario. Our show was more real than the news that many new channels are showing. We never staged the conflict between the judges or created scenes of anybody's illness. As for social responsibility, Abhas has already recorded a song with Adesh Shrivastav, Harshit has sung in a Mukesh Bhatt production and many have got offers."

That marketing is supreme is reflected from the fact that even Lata Mangeshkar who turned up for the finale after much request used the show to promote her specially-designed watches.

In an attempt to run down the reality shows as giving false hope to youngsters, the media generally takes a stand without speaking to the contenders. In fact, most channels run the show highlights in the evening and dissect the genre in the prime time keeping both constituencies satisfied in the process.

Most of the contestants are quite realistic about their chances and have back-up options. Take for instance Harshit is in the final year of his physiotherapy course and Ishmeet is doing Chartered Accountancy. "I know I am weak at singing high-pitched songs, and for a Punjabi it is a challenge. So I will give a year to my training. If things work out fine it is okay, otherwise I will go back to my studies," says Ishmeet.

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/11/30/stories/2007113050420400. htm