Any rupali ganguli interview?

INTERVIEW

The question that was being asked on India 360 was: Shilpa Shetty racially abused by Celebrity Big Brother housemates: How real are these reality shows?

On the show to discuss the question were Shilpa Shetty's mother, Sunanda Shetty; TV actor and participant on India's version of Big Brother, Big Boss Rupali Ganguly; and Executive Director, Centre For Advocacy and Research, Akhila Sivadas.

After seeing Shilpa in this situation, seeing her crying and breaking down in front of millions of television viewers, is there an opinion that she should not have done this particular reality TV show?

To this Shilpa Shetty's mother, Sunanda Shetty said, "I think it was very brave on her part to even want to do the show in the first place. It was her choice to do the show. However, the turn of events have certainly disturbed us and we are absolutely saddened when we see her crying on television. The only saving grace is that she has been receiving immense support from the Indian Government, the Asian community, our country, the British government and people in England. We are hoping that everyone's good wishes will help her sail through this crisis and something good will come out of this."

Will this help Shilpa in her career?

Sunanda Shetty jumped to her daughter's defense on this saying that this had nothing to do with her career. She said that Shilpa's career was going just fine, that two of her films are ready for release back home and that this was simply a TV show.

When asked whether Shilpa's profile had been bolstered after the show and whether her popularity back home too had grown far more than it would have through just another film, Sunanda Shetty said that she had no clue about how this would affect Shilpa's popularity status.

She said that Shilpa decided to participate in this particular reality show because she had viewed this as a 26-day event where she would play herself. "Shilpa has grown up in a very sheltered and secure home and environment and she has not seen this side of life before and probably this has come as a bit of a shock to her."

She added that Shilpa was not crying from morning till night as all the news channels had been showing since Tuesday, but it was just one of those moments when she felt bad and cried and it was caught on camera.

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"I am sure Shilpa is not even aware of what is happening in the outside world and about people talking behind her back. I think that she is conducting herself with a lot of dignity and that we are proud of her," Sunanda Shetty stated.

Shilpa Shetty's agent had earlier said that she was in there alone, and that she probably has no idea of the kind of support that she is getting from everyone outside.

Her mother said that the episode would probably help make Shilpa a much stronger person and would add to her growth in life.

Is Shilpa provoking other contestants?

When told that there have been allegations that maybe Shilpa was provoking some of the other participants, walking in front of them in a teasing manner with whitener on her face, Sunanda Shetty said, "It's just a small group of people who are insecure and who are prone to a little bit of envy who are reacting to her in the manner that they did."

"I am happy that she has maintained her Indianness and has handled this in a very graceful and dignified manner," she added saying that Shilpa does not see herself as an ambassador of the Indian community in UK, but that maybe the other participants perceived her as one.

What is the motivation of TV stars to take part in a reality TV show where people breakdown, have fights and display their nasty side for all to see?

To this Rupali Ganguly said, "More than the money and the fame was the idea of discovering myself. I wanted to be independent. I have also led a very sheltered life just like Shilpa and sometimes people just want to discover themselves as individuals, which is the reason why I decided to take part in Bigg Boss."

Do reality shows display the worst qualities of people?

"I really do not know whether such shows display the worst qualities of people, because I have just been released from the Bigg Boss house. It's a prison. A luxurious one, but a prison nonetheless and there are different inmates - different individuals from completely different walks of life. Sometimes you get along with some of them and at other times you just can't stand them at all."

However, she added that one just needs to get up every morning and just try and be nice to everyone else.

These reality shows are not live shows. They are produced and all the participants know that the cameras are on and more than that, these are edited shows. If the producers had wanted, they could have edited out racist remarks against Shilpa Shetty. Do producers actually do these things to get the TRPs and the viewership up?

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To this Akhila Sivadas said, "No. I think that to some extent, the producers want to make us aware of these things. They want us to know that they are constructing these things, they are playing them up. It's partly entertainment. It's a gladiatorial sport where the crowd bays for more. So lets npt get sanctimonious and say that this is not what we had asked for."

However, she added that in an Indian social set up, producers should not exploit this kind of divisiveness.

Don't any laws apply to reality shows?

The media thinks that only when we utter the censorship that laws apply to them. However, that's not true said Akhila. She feels that all the laws of the land apply to the reality shows. "We should be using the existing laws to create a law-abiding media. We should not have to just resort to censorship."

Rupali Ganguly agreed saying that her sanity was somewhat in danger when she was in Bigg Boss because for the first time in her life, she was living away from her parents, her sheltered environment.

"I can vouch for the fact that even though everyone knew that the cameras were on, there was absolutely no acting at all. Whatever happens, happens at the spur of the moment. We were all cut off from the world completely and we didn't even get to see an outsider and it can be quite maddening," she said."

However, she did say that initially for the first couple of weeks, people were conscious that there were cameras all around, after that they all forgot about it.

Is there a slippery slope here?

This is a situation where reality is staged in a certain way with the consent of all the participants. Can this lead to a slippery slope where someone may decide to commit suicide?

"Fortunately for us, Indian reality shows are still keeping with cultural limits, but abroad - we are already seeing a bit of a slippery slope with the Shilpa Shetty episode. But it's just a matter of time before Indian reality shows catch up to up the entertainment and voyeuristic value," said Akhila.

So what is a producer looking at when he is airing a reality show? Is he just trying to show that here is a society completely without any values, without any rules and regulations?

Akhila stated that the producers are just assuming that there is a bored audience out there and he just wants TRPs. That is his aim.

"In India, that is the danger because our fiction is not really working and the programmes are sliding downhill. There is already an experimentation with reality TV and seeing the ugly reality which is constructed in a highly emotive manner is what the audiences want," said she adding that Indian audiences are really asking for trouble if these are the kind of shows that they want to see.

She said that she hoped that the Indian audience itself would form the warning bells and uses this incident to say no.

Should there be limits on reality TV

To this Rupali Ganguly said, "In this competitive world, producers are trying to get as much viewership and TRPs as possible and I agree with Akhila that the viewer has to sound the warning bell. The people have to set the limits."

Akhila Sivadas said that we must learn to depict and treat the ugly reality and not exploit it because we are exploiting not the powerful and the privileged, but the vulnerable and the impressionistic. "You are emotionally charging people and you are creating what is called a legitimate backlash outside the so-called the idiot box," she concluded.

As our society continues to progress and prosper and we pride ourselves on being more civilised, how ironical that we derive so much enjoyment from uncivilised reality TV shows.