All about Indian reality shows - Page 2

In Shreya's days reality shows were different. Shreya is now on top. The fact why she is she herself speaks:

"Don't go with the show business. You have talent. Pursue Saraswati, Laxmi will follow. But if you pursue Laxmi, then Saraswati will desert you."

Baba Ranchoddas Chanchad ki jai. 😛

Anyways jokes apart, what Shreya has said is absolutely right. Learning is one thing which should never halt. Of course she was very lucky to have got break in Devdas but fortune favors the brave.
She is almost unchallenged these days with Alka ji also fading out and numerous new singers coming which only last for handful of songs. We witnessed that pretty well in the MMKM on IF.

Originally posted by: nithyak

In Shreya's days reality shows were different. Shreya is now on top. The fact why she is she herself speaks:

Depends on how you look at struggle. My struggle was with the process of learning rather than becoming a star. My hard work was in absorbing music, not going door-to-door to music directors. I won't deny there were a lot of offers for live shows, particularly after my Bengali hits. Some of them were very tempting but I decided I wouldn't go on stage being a mimic artist, I would become somebody first. I remember somebody had told me that if I had done shows for just one season, I could buy a house. Another person in Kolkata was ready to pay me higher than Rs 10,000 per show, even giving me more than the highest paid singer there. I rejected these offers, became a student of another guruji and kept learning. These are make-or-break decisions and not easy to stick by. Self-restraint has been my biggest struggle.

Kalyanji made me aware of this. I felt a bit left out when he sent his other students regularly to his "Little Wonder" shows but included me in only seven or eight. He told me, "Don't go with the show business. You have talent. Pursue Saraswati, Laxmi will follow. But if you pursue Laxmi, then Saraswati will desert you." TV had provided me a platform. But it was up to me to bite the bait. Today, the industry is full of vultures that commodify talent. They hire fresh talent young and cheap and put them on stage shows. Parents are happy their kid is getting the exposure he has never dreamt of, he is going abroad, earning good money. When you get caught up between too many performances at 13 and 14, your learning graph flattens. There is no nurturing of talent.

The channels, too, have joined the rat race. Earlier, Sa Re Ga Ma had a contract that you could not perform in a similar show on another channel. And if you did do so, you had to pay a penalty of Rs 1 lakh. Reality TV wasn't a big business in my time. And it was thanks to it that Sanjay Leela Bhansali found me. And I will forever be indebted to him. For nobody in the industry had the guts to entrust the songs of the most expensive film of its time with a rookie 16-year-old.

Link:

http://folks.co.in/2009/10/chit-chat-with-shreya-ghoshal/

Shreya is a legend in the making, and this stature of her is achieved because of what you posted above. But she came into lime light because of a reality show.

I am seeing similar personality traits and talent in this 16 year old kid Anwesha. Hope she gets a break like sherya got when she was 16. Anwesha should choose the similar path with hard work, dedication to her classical base and stay away from stage shows.

Once you have achieved great hieghts and stay humble as shreya is now, you are bound to succeed. Unlike most of the current crop of reality singers who become arrogant and rude. Almost all of them act rather then sing and considers themselves as legends!.

Originally posted by: nithyak

Xobile,

What is your opinion after reading this article?

Hmm... Well, I read the article from a very specific viewpoint. I don't really care about what attracts people to reality shows, or why they go on to win shows. What intrigues me is how much success they gain after the shows. In this respect, comedy and dance talent hunts are not going to throw up stars in the usual sense, for obvious reasons. So the only relevant question for me is narrowed down to 'How much success can reality TV singers hope to gain?'

The article is largely a list of failure to semi-success stories, with no examples of reality TV singers achieving success in the conventional sense, i.e. making a name in playback singing, or producing hit albums. So that might 'disillusion' some aspiring contestants, their fans and the audience in general.

Without anybody from the current crop of reality TV singers making it to the A-list, it is easy to conclude that the reality TV circuit is not a road to success. For some, reality TV is just a dead-end, and they revert back to their old life completely, such as Abhishek from II3. For others like Deepali Kishore, reality TV is a side road to other parts of the entertainment industry. And for a large number, reality TV is just a roundabout - they just keep going round and round the various shows that different channels spring up! Nobody in the recent past has taken the highway to stardom at par with even secondary Bollywood singers such as Neeraj Shridhar, Mahalaxmi Iyer or Babul Supriyo, let alone the top-bracket of Sonu, Shaan, Udit, KK, Shreya, Sunidhi, Alka etc.

BUT I am quite unfazed by the article. I was never enamoured by reality TV singers. They were good: some had nice voices, some had nice gaayaki, others emoted effectively. But nobody was comprehensively or consistently outstanding. So when I see that none of them have achieved great things, I'm not surprised.

In my eyes, the main reason why the list of failures and semi-successes (or semi-failures, if you prefer to call them that!) is so long is that the number of reality TV shows is so high. The more shows you have, the more dreams you raise and the more dreams you end up destroying. Over the whole history of Bollywood, you can count the number of A-list, successful female playback singers on your fingers - you can't increase that rate of talent discovery by increasing the number of talent hunts! If there was still just one show for all ages and all regions and all languages, then the list of failures would be much smaller.

NOW, the situation is kind of different. I feel like finally, reality TV has found singers with the potential to reach the top: Anwesha and Aishwarya. Both of these singers are awesome and are, in my eyes, a cut above the rest in TV shows. I feel that they can, given the right mix of luck and determination, make it to the top! If only these girls can avoid the side-roads, the dead-ends and the roundabouts of reality TV, they might just catch the highway to success...

IN CONCLUSION, there is nothing inherently wrong with reality TV. The only problem is that the huge number of talent hunts has meant that a huge number of hopefuls has been created, meaning that the chances of failure are also increased. But if people have the requisite talent, I think they can still achieve great things out of reality shows!

Anwesha and Aishwarya are talk of town these days. Lets hope both of them don't get lost in the limelight.

@xobile
(i) But nobody was comprehensively or consistently outstanding.
(ii) NOW, the situation is kind of different. I feel like finally, reality TV has found singers with the potential to reach the top.

Tend to differ here bro. I think the situation has infact worsened now. I think in the past too we had singers who had the potential to reach the top.
For me SaReGaMa of Sonu Nigam days was the most successful. No I am not saying because I am a Sonu Nigam fan but the I am saying this because the success rate i.e. number of participants who have done good playback in Bollywood is more from this show. Let me name a few, Kunal Ganjawala, Shreya Ghoshal, Bela Shende, Sanjeevani, Parthiv Gohil, Sneha Pant, Shweta Pandit, Shekhar Ravjiani of Vishal Shekhar duo & Vijay Prakash.
These guys never had mentors like Vishal Shekhar, Himesh or Ismail Darbar who would promise them breaks in their movies but they rose only because of their talent.

Reason: No public voting before. The prime reason why today's reality shows are worthless. Also in SaReGaMa more focus was laid on good singing. Like there were rounds where participants were made to sing regional and folk songs.

^^ Yep, completely agree!

Reality TV shows nowadays do not give good singers a fair chance. They are nothing compared to SRGM of the old days, where singers were nurtured, mentored and appreciated for SINGING and nothing else. When you introduce public voting, quality control goes out of the window...

The reason I said the situation is kind of different now is solely because finally reality shows have found two singers (Aishwarya and Anwesha) who, I think, can go on to achieve success. Honestly, I didn't have high hopes for anyone else in any other TV show. Of course, my predictions (or hopes, to be accurate) for them may not come true, because talent is just one factor in success. BUT I think these girls do have a realistic chance of succeeding.

These girls were not found because the method used by reality shows (public voting, competitive mentoring etc.) are any good. They were found because ITNE saare contests hote hue, itni zyaada khudaai hote hue, ek-aad heere to ghalti se bhi mil hi jaate hain!

I will agree to what Xobile has said here.

There is a simple rule, in creative arts, Quantity cannot guarantee quality. Thats why only few makes to top.

In Shreya's time, there was only one show, so best of the best come and participate here. Now there are 5 shows, so AVg 20 partcipants, per show, makes it 100 per year. DO we really produce that much of talent to go at the top. The situation at the top bracket is very tight and apart from Shreya or Sonu to certain extent, no one has achieved to go there in very early age. means less than 25 yers of age. These reality show singers have to be really special to go even closer to that at early age(most of them are around 20 or less). So even the expectations for going to top are so high, we forget that its not easy or convenient for them to go there.

Problem is We try to search Shreya Ghoshal in every contestant who participate in reality show, and if they cannot do it like HER, then we brand them as failure.

Now, to a participants POV, its very important to understand the potential on their part, understand their USP, and understanding the situation. Ultimately, wht makes them content and happy((to certain extent). They do 50-60 shows per year, certainly for money. I am sure their music do not improve with shows. It has many reason, like contract, interactions, but most importantly MONEY and fame. At that age they cannot mak it big in bollywood, even they knw it. Most of them leave studies, even Reyaaz. So most of the blaming should be taken by themselves.
They are not immature to understand the financial aspect of reality shows in producers part. Its simply business. They have to decide, whn to go in and get out of the place. IMO, the follow up process after the first reality show is where evryone goes wrong.

Its tough to get of the system once you are in to it. People can't see the larger aspect of it or simply ignore it.

Its a business but you can choose your business partners.

@xobile

Hmmm...bas ab to yahi umeed karo ki inn heero ko tarshaane ke liye koi Sanjay Leela Bhansali jaisa bhala banda mil jaaye.

Many people will not be knowing this. In the same episode in which Shreya came as a kid there was one more future star competing against Shreya. I am talking about Shweta Pandit.

Originally posted by: brahmabul

Anwesha and Aishwarya are talk of town these days. Lets hope both of them don't get lost in the limelight.

@xobile
(i) But nobody was comprehensively or consistently outstanding.
(ii) NOW, the situation is kind of different. I feel like finally, reality TV has found singers with the potential to reach the top.

Tend to differ here bro. I think the situation has infact worsened now. I think in the past too we had singers who had the potential to reach the top.
For me SaReGaMa of Sonu Nigam days was the most successful. No I am not saying because I am a Sonu Nigam fan but the I am saying this because the success rate i.e. number of participants who have done good playback in Bollywood is more from this show. Let me name a few, Kunal Ganjawala, Shreya Ghoshal, Bela Shende, Sanjeevani, Parthiv Gohil, Sneha Pant, Shweta Pandit, Shekhar Ravjiani of Vishal Shekhar duo & Vijay Prakash.
These guys never had mentors like Vishal Shekhar, Himesh or Ismail Darbar who would promise them breaks in their movies but they rose only because of their talent.

Reason: No public voting before. The prime reason why today's reality shows are worthless. Also in SaReGaMa more focus was laid on good singing. Like there were rounds where participants were made to sing regional and folk songs.

I agree that the voting system for talent shows is one of the causes for this setback. Reality shows have become more like daily soap dramas. The maximum profit and TRP that a show should generate is all what the producers look for. In today's world, everything is going commercialized and glamorized which is really sad to see. There should be some diverse kind of revolution here which we all can just hope for i guess.