Article : When Reality Bites

When reality bites

15 Dec 2008, 0000 hrs IST, PURBA DUTT , TNN

From the macabre to the maudlin, reality television has covered a wide swathe of subjects in the name of entertainment that allows the viewer to be the voyeur.

Television which was once supposed to be our escape from reality is now increasingly mounting the TRP charts by unleashing on us untamed and unedited instances of raw human behaviour and emotions, forcing us to take sides, form opinions and ensuring images stay with us long after the episode is telecast.

Now as the world debates the ethicality of a British news channel showing the assisted suicide of a terminally ill person, maybe it's time there was a cry for television to turn 'unreal'.

Today, we are privy to the shame and success of the television contestants as they play out their real selves in quest of fame, but we seldom sit up and consider the downsides of such unabashed and uninhibited reality. Actress Shilpa Shetty got an audience with the Queen of England after her Big Brother success, whereas her tormentor Jade Goody got far worse than her infamy. Even when she let out her cervical cancer condition, many thought it was just a gimmick to drum up public sympathy.

To make sure eyeballs are rivetted to these shows and that advertisers happily buy into commercial time, reality show producers often heighten the sense of drama by turning the squabbles, showdowns, hysterics and antics on full steam.

"Can you imagine when a contestant's father accosted me physically, the producer of D for Dance, a reality dance show on Zee Tamizh, actually said, "Let the show go on, the cameras are rolling' even as they made no efforts to step in, obviously relishing the fact that the confrontation would juice up the episode," says Geetha, mother of Abilasha, an exceptionally gifted 11-year-old.

Where does one draw the line on reality television? If today it is about dying, tomorrow it may well be about creating. "Reality television has made such deep inroads because of producers demanding something be done and a contestant at the other end agreeing to it for want of fame or money, or both," says TV star Sai Deodhar, a contestant on the first season of Nach Baliye.

"Reality television should be banned because it compromises the child's inherent sense of self-respect and worth," argues Geetha, whose daughter was declared winner in every round till the tenth episode when the ugly fracas took place. Her daughter, who worried incessantly about her mother's safety following the incident, has sworn off such shows for ever.

When reality shows were in their nascent stages in our country, there was something refreshingly new about their format and delivery. But now with more audiences tuning in, stage-managed and structured arguments, quarrels between judges and spats between contestants are par for the course.

"I was asked to say something nasty about one of the contestants, obviously to shore up the ratings, but I put my foot down and refused to play ball. Ultimately the producer gave in," says Sai, who believes that after its first innings, Nach Baliye too went the way most reality shows are wont to go.

"There's nothing really real about reality shows," says actor Shakti Anand, Sai's husband who partnered her on the show. "The progression of the show is channel driven. Everything from the beginning to the results of the show are decided much in advance. I think we definitely need restrictions because slapping, abusing, accusing and pushing each other for the sake of commerce is giving a bad name to reality."

Twenty years ago, who'd have thought that one day we'd be huddled in front of our TV sets watching a bullet-by-bullet coverage of a terrorist strike. That would have then belonged to the genre of fictional thrillers.

But even as reality television shows are here to stay, it's important to remember that they're not about mashed roaches or surviving in shark-infested waters alone; nor are they only about about frayed nerves, temper tantrums and liplocks in full frontal view. They are also about dignity and pride.

A dignity that the dying deserve and the living demand.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/TV_Buzz/When_reality_bites/articleshow/3835633.cms