Government urged to regulate ‘outrageous’ reality

Government urged to regulate 'outrageous' reality shows

Jalees Andrabi, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: August 10. 2009 8:30PM UAE / August 10. 2009 4:30PM GMT

New Delhi // The popularity of reality television, especially among young Indians, has deepened a growing debate about the government's role in regulating the format, with critics demanding a ban on the programmes they claim subvert traditional morals.

Most Indian reality shows are adaptations of successful western programmes and have invited controversy since their inception. The most recent show to rile India's conservatives is Star Plus's Sach Ka Saamna (SKS), which is modelled on the popular American game show Moment of Truth (itself a copy of a Colombian programme). Contestants on SKS are asked a series of increasingly personal questions while a polygraph tests the veracity of their answers.

Critics say questions such as "did you ever have an affair with a married man?", put forward in a matter-of-fact way, are unacceptable.

But sex has not been the only topic on SKS to challenge traditional mores. One recent contestant, the former Indian cricketer Vinod Kambli, sparked controversy by accusing his friend and superstar batsman Sachin Tendulkar of not helping him during bad times, replying in affirmation to the statement: "There was differentiation because of my caste and colour".

Rajeev Khandelwal, the host of SKS, says "the tone of the show does not offend Indian sensibilities because it has been made keeping Indian audiences in mind. It is about testing a person's courage to speak the truth and is not demeaning", adding that the contestants have the option to leave the hot seat if they are not comfortable with a particular question. Two separate public interest litigations were filed in the Delhi High Court alleging that SKS is obscene and against the Indian cultural ethos. The court dismissed the two petitions, saying that "moral policing is not its function", and suggested that the petitioners approach the central government instead. "It's for the federal government to decide whether the programme should be banned or not. It is not the function of the court ... There are far more serious problems in this country which we have to settle," the bench said in a statement.

Moral outrage and reality television in India have gone hand in hand since the format's debut, whether it was a contestant stripping to her bikini in Sony's Iss Jungle Se Mujhae Bachao, an adaptation of the British reality show I'm a Celebrity … Get Me out of Here, or former contestants of MTV's Splitsvilla alleging that underage drinking was encouraged to trigger indecent behaviour for the sake of Television Rating Points (TRPs), a charge the network denies.

After a furore by opposition party members in parliament over reality television on July 28, the Congress government agreed for a debate on the programmes' content. Many parliamentarians, including Kamal Akhtar from the Samajwadi party and Ravi Shankar Prasad from the Bhartiya Janta Party, called for a ban on shows that "promote vulgarity, obscenity and are against Indian ethos".

"The government needs to take notice of what goes on air. It is high time we have an autonomous regulatory body to regulate TRPs. TRPs should be monitored on a monthly basis and not on an hourly basis," said Mr Prasad while addressing the Indian parliament.

The Samajwadi party's Kamal Akhtar said "obscene" questions were asked by the anchor of SKS and gave a recent example, when a woman was asked in the presence of her husband "whether she would have physical contact with another person. When she said no, the polygraph test said the answer was wrong".

Media observers say a lack of originality in Indian reality television makes producers and creative heads of channels rely on foreign formats.

"Most of the reality shows are adaptations of western or American popular shows as it becomes very convenient for the producers to make the final products as they are tried and tested on the audiences," said Ajit Palve, a media critic.

"The producers forget to take into consideration the kind of audience we have in India. Most of the reality shows are targeted for younger audiences, which are 40 per cent of the entire population, but one cannot ignore the sensibilities of other viewers," added Mr Palve.

"Star Plus was getting an average TRP of just 0.8 from this time band, but after they launched SKS, they managed an average of 4.3 TRP throughout," he said, pointing to the attraction of the format for channels hungry for increased advertising revenue.

F Ahmad, a producer with Midtech India, which produces reality shows, said: "It's a format which identifies with the ordinary person. It presents life the way it is lived, [in] unscripted situations. Our society has people with different perspectives and personalities ... the small screen is a mirror for the society to introspect [about] what is happenings in society."

jandrabi@thenational.ae