Pitfalls of Public voting

Friends, more than anything the prime cause of Deepali's exit or for that matter any other good singer was the fact that he/she couldn't garner enough votes to proceed further in the competition.

Now the concept of Indian idol as we all know is derived from the POP IDOL format conceived by Mr. Simon Cowell and has been hugely popular in Britain, USA and several other countries. Indian idol is the perfect reality singing show suited for a country like India with a strong musical tradition, where music is part and participle of every Indian's daily life. But the major flaw of this format is indeed the public voting system for a country like India where the common Indian is known to vote from his heart rather than his head.

The factors which decide the number of votes polled may be listed as;

1. The number of viewers who watch the show.
2. Out of the No.1 above the number of viewers who have telephone
connections either mobile or landline.
3. Out of No.3 the actual voters who are willing to send a vote which
involves spending money.
4. The region or religion or caste to which a particular contestant belongs
and also his/her mother tongue or spoken language.
5. The number of fans who sometimes switch loyalties to other shows running
side by side and might have their preferences changing alternatively week
after week
6. Number of people who vote through internet, since it is paid voting in
Indian idol the number may be miniscule compared to telephone votes.

Now coming to the factors which result in the elimination of a singer;

1. It is a no-brainer of a fact that regional bias rather than musical sense, is
the single most deciding reason as to who gets the maximum votes and
who the least. So people vote madly for that contestant who belongs
their village, locality, city, state, and sadly but most horrifyingly caste or
religion, despite the truth that he/she might be giving substandard
performances or being inconsistent. We can easily cite the examples of
previous winners of the show This factor overrides by a mile too long, any
discussion of voters bias towards singing and dancing which is a
eyewash excuse given by the judges' panel.

2. The argument of people preferring a dancing singer over a standing singer
doesn't have any weight since right from the start the stress is always on
singing better with dance given a secondary importance and nobody
complains if a singer sings outstandingly without moving his body at all.
Even the looks of a contestant don't make any significant impact since
many eliminated candidates were prettier or handsome than those
remaining

3. It can be easily inferred that majority of the followers of these type of
shows are in the age group of 10 - 35 and not all of these younger lot can
differentiate between an average singer and an extraordinary talent and
those who do might just keep themselves restricted just to enjoy the show
but not too keen or serious about voting due to several reasons. This
indifference towards voting might also exist in the minds of those small
number of regular viewers above 35. Many people who are loyal
fans of the show might not have the financial means to spend on votes, and
the many youngsters being dependent on their parents and guardians for
money. In simple words all voters may be viewers but not all viewers are
voters.

4. It is really asking to much from the viewers when the voting is introduced as
early as the piano rounds left with the option of 28 contestants to choose
from, and expect them to hold on to them till the end. This makes no sense
since all the factors mentioned above come into play too soon and many
outstanding talent who might be superior than the finalists get ejected and
this greatly affects the standard of competition in the final rounds. This
brings to the fore the actual intentions of producer's. Agreed that money
is indeed a sustaining factor for conducting such an expensive show and
that at the end it is the revenue and profits that count for a private
business entity like Sony TV or Miditech, but at what cost? You don't
have to compromise on quality and content and play with peoples'
sentiments and emotion including those of the contestants some of whom
are just out of school, just to grab money. If the facts are right the channel
even shares the revenue generated by stage shows of the eventual winner.
During the course of competition the contestants are required to
perform in various events, functions and also do promotional campaigns,
for which it is unclear whether they are paid or not and if not it is pure
exploitation by the channel/producers.

So my conclusion is, with some minor modifications with respect to the voting system the Indian idol concept has the best chance of ruling the musical reality shows running across the airwaves of Indian TV and those changes can substantially upgrade the standing of Indian idol as a serious musical contest with the kind of amazing untapped singing talent available across India.

My suggestion is to introduce the voting system when the final round is in the home stretch with maybe 4 or 5 singers of the finest quality remaining. On the other hand equal weightage may be given to public voting and judges' choice when it is a matter of 9 or 10 contestants where the judges can exercise the option of retaining a better singer who faces elimination(this should be informed to the public before hand, and something like the top 5 or10 voters selected randomly being rewarded for voting for the retained contestant on the lines of KBC can motivate the masses).

Suggestions and comments welcomed.