Reality shows started with a bang and as they were a welcome relief from the mind numbing saas -bahu serials, they became the flavor instantly. People loved the idea of watching others in real life situations and how they deal with them, enjoying their misery and happiness at the same time.
Its been found of great use , especially in India and the subcontinent where the emotional quotient is quite high. So you are sitting on a goldmine of an audience,if you make something which emotionally charges up people and gets their tear gland working over time.
Then all hell broke loose, and came the era of post-teen, youth based shows in India .at once, obscenity, brutality and self centeredness gained a whole new meaning, diametrically different from the earlier ones and the gang of bachhas ( clueless bunch of 20 somethings ) got the entire nation hooked to it.
This concept is usually explored by channels like 'MTV', 'V', 'Bindass' etc. Currently the only form of this show is 'Splits villa ' in MTV, which itself seems like a spin-off from the immensely successful 'Roadies'.
Though the earlier versions were still bearable ,The current Indian television screen is swarmed by content hardly fit for most audiences .So you have a makeup- disaster- gone- bad Palomi, whining away to glory on a roadies show, while a sadomasochist- of- a- chic hurls the choicest of expletives at the contestants with gr8 fluency in Dadagiri .One show which had me particularly troubled was the latest offering by a certain lady. Rakhi sawant , the actress known for her bold overtures has her "swayamver " in the offing where she plans to "test ride" 15 men( whatever that means!!) ,with rakhi gyrating bootyliciously at them , i wonder how many of the 15 men will actually survive to put up with their uncertain future.Though the fate of the show is still to be sealed, the sensibilities of a huge section of the population have been challenged yet again .Wonder where we'd go from here. .hope we are nearing the end of the dark tunnel…