The Delhi High Court has declined to admit a petition which wanted the reality show "Sach ka Saamna" taken off the air. Indian culture, said their lordships, was not so fragile as to be affected by one TV show. They said, wisely, "nobody in his individual capacity can be allowed to take up on the social order and ask for directions."
Members of Parliament, meanwhile, are exercised not just over middle class housewives going on television to admit to extra marital affairs (in the presence of their children, in-laws and husbands) but also over commercially successful sagas woven around child marriage. What is the country coming to?
Digest or reject
Television agitates people and is regular fodder for politicians who think it is more deleterious to the nation's health than substantial numbers of people doing without clean drinking water or going to bed hungry. That is not surprising, because television and its excesses are more visible. The deprived do not live in our drawing rooms. But seeing that the nation is turning 62 and all that, I would argue that satellite television excesses are something we are now grown up enough to digest. Or reject. As the good judges on the High Court division bench said, "In this land of Gandhi, it appears that nobody follows Gandhi. Follow the Gandhian principle of see no evil. Why don't you simply switch off the TV?"
In fact, on the medium today compared to any period over the past 15 years, we actually have choice. All those reality shows run a gamut that they did not before. They don't stop at quiz shows, bad singing and mimicry, they go on to husband-selecting from a band of hopefuls, lizard eating in the jungle, fractious housekeeping on an island, Bond-style sequences of pretty girls dangling from helicopters, and then, breaking up families on the one hand, ("Sach.") and bringing them together on the other ("Aap ki Kacheri"). All in the course of an evening's entertainment. Avoidable, you say? Maybe, but you can't complain about sameness.
Then there are the serialised sagas. True, "Hum Aapke Hain Kaun"-style weddings are still so much in vogue that daily life in the average TV household seems to be a perennial costume drama. It took some three episodes to get Jyoti married, only to have "Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai", "Ballika Vadhu" and "Laado" take over with tortuous wedding-centred sequences. But for a change there are actually some other stories around.
On offer are the daily adventures of a meddling good Samaritan of a taxi driver (Real), the tale of a young woman bureaucrat whose private sector husband lectures her on not taking principles too far (Real), another of a girl who wants to become an Olympic runner (Sony) and then there are a handful of rural sagas set, of course, in lavish modern mansions.
There are also what you would have called "socials" in the days of Doordarshan's primacy, a trend being shrewdly experimented with now by Colors and Zee. On air currently are serials purportedly about autism, trafficking, foeticide, child marriage, the class divide, and so on. Of course, to make them palatable at prime time they go through so many hoops that you would be hard put to recognize the original intent. A prime example of this is the serial "Laado" on Sony which has left foeticide far behind as it goes into improbable sequences of revenge in which a matriarch tortures a daughter in law while the men in the household twirl their moustaches and watch from the sidelines.
Unlikely as it may seem from all this, when they give interviews entertainment industry executives stress that Indian audiences are actually more discriminating than before, and are demanding more from content creators and platforms. With Rs. 8000 plus crores of advertising riding on it, TV is a lucrative industry, and Hindi general entertainment its single most paying segment. Marketers of these channels report hefty annual jumps in spending on research and marketing for these shows, as much as 50 per cent over last year, according to Mint.
That's the irony: a lot of highly paid minds are working to think up or import concepts that have the potential of make our lawmakers go ballistic. Hardly any minds, highly paid or otherwise are working to figure out whether TV entertainment is simply expensively produced time pass which people watch and forget (while remembering to buy the product advertised) or indeed an insidious shaper of values. Would Minister Ambika Soni like to think about remedying this?
Truly edgy
Meanwhile, a small suggestion for Star Plus, which airs "Sach ka Saamna". If they think asking Bobby Darling on television whether or not he uses the women's washroom is edgy, they are not exploring a lot of other truly edgy possibilities. Put a Congressman in that chair and ask him what he really thinks about certain members of his party leadership. Or a CPM worker, and ask him what he really thinks about certain members of his party leadership. Ask an income tax officer whether he and his bosses have taken bribes or a doctor whether she has performed medical termination of female foetuses. If such confessions could be aired, they would transform a rather pathetic aiming-totitillate show into public service television.
Correction: My last column, "Local takes in Kashmir" contained erroneous references to the family of Mr Devinder Rana including his late father, for which I sincerely apologise. Mr Rana says his family is not involved in his business.
Keywords: television, reality shows, dramas, soap opera
Comments:
Kudos to the High Court's judgement: "In this land of Gandhi, it appears that nobody follows Gandhi. Follow the Gandhian principle of see no evil. Why don't you simply switch off the TV?" I always do that when I don't like something that is being aired on TV instead of baying for the blood of the producer.
The Delhi High Court has done the right thing by declining to admit this petition. We have come to such a stage that freedom of expression is under attack from every Tom, Dick and Harry in our country who is out to get cheap publicity in the name of moral policing, is our Indian value system so fragile as to need protection?
Your reaction has been rather on the safe side given the "lordship's" verdict, yet I feel the court is right in proclaiming that let content be based on discretion, but a line is needed, the "taste" is important, as was the case of "taste" in case of Mr Hussain's paintings, titillating on pecuniary grounds is rather disturbing trend, a suggestion is to introduce paid content, platforms like DTH need to be promoted, pay if you want such content and thus create a niche for GEC...so much for free market.
Raising a hue and cry over the morality of shows aired on TV is nothing more than drab moral policing by "upholders" of society. If in an open society a person has the choice to think and act on his own, he has every right to watch what he wants. In order to minimize the exposure of children to such mature and adult topics, the timing of such shows should be mandated within a time slot.
Sure, there are people in this land of Gandhi who would want to see no evil, but look at the number of people who actually watch those programmes.It is futile to blame the television networks.First our film makers aped these business development tactics from abroad and now the televisions are following suit.What was exclusively on the big screen is now creeping into the living room through television sets.
we need to understand that the television channels are in business of attracting eyeballs, the longer they do it, the higher the probability of their survival in the business and higher the revenue, social responsibility is the last priority for the media houses in this age of sensationalism.
This show reveals the truth about indian hypocricy in the name of culture. Culture is the way of life and we have right to choose our way of life.People who oppose this show may have done things that should be hidden from their families.Foriegners play this for fun and they are ready to accept the truth, but indians are not yet ready and will never be ready for this show bcos indians have many things to hide from their families and friends.Please ban this show for the sake of indian culture which created this situation
It is good that television provides variety, but airing a wedding of a celebrity or reality shows which are far away from providing knowledge or values to the viewers, which are aimed just to increase their TRP must be checked upon. Making money shouldn't be the sole aim of production houses, there must be some social responsibility among them.
Actually TV channels have nothing to do with the effect of the TV programmes on society. They are only doing their business by attracting the vierwers and selling their products. It is our duty to decide that what we want to see and what will be the effects of those serials on our society.
If we fear moral degradation in our generation due to copycat shows some creative channels should come up with programmes as suggested by Sivanti ninan for mass education as TV art reaches millions unlike other artistic creations
Profit based institutions, let it be television channels, can only think of one thing i.e Profit Maximization. So we are no one to charge them if they devised a lucrative idea that would sell. Let it be ripping people off their dignity in front of camera, because they themselves volunteered for it in the first place.
Decision of high court is highly commendable,as it questions our basic nature. I wonder why would anyone want to see such serials at all. Why not "Shut down the TV?" We should question our own motives.
The ruling party in Tamil Nadu can not create infrastructure for development but wanted to rule for ever.Came the brilliant idea.Give them a colour TV glue tem to the idiot box.give them rice at one rupee a kg.the earnings of the lady of the house is enough to feed the family.Show all nonsense in the channels run by their own party.Get corruptedbut Vote me to power.Myself and my family will peosper you perish.as long as this is the condition Ambica Sonis and Sonia Gandhis who want their support to rule will not o a thing to save our India that is Bharat
I think we Indians should become more broad minded when it comes to accept reality shows and excessive drama even on news channel.There are many shows which (rightly said by other members) are just for business shake,they do not mind the effect it leaves on society.Yet those shows have high TRP.Why? People love watching it? I think we Indians should consider this matter seriously and open their mind in this regard.We should be responsible citizen of this country,and not waste our time on craps shown on TV.
Now we have this Mr. P reddy who is grown and big enough to abuse the Indian culture. The thing with our country and our citizens is that we address ourselves as foreigner. Look at many of the remarks and you will find their attitude. Indians don't do this, Indians don't do that. Sirs, who do you think you are? Or have you lived in some more "advanced" country for some years and don't understand the simple thinking of my fellow citizens. When my countrymen are dying out of hunger and the media is reporting about the new hair style of the cricket captain, I do feel insulted. We don't have much money to enjoy our lives as westerns do. And even if some have, it is our duty to think of the nation as a whole. Just speaking "India" and "Indians" is not going to help.
As the good judges on the High Court division bench said, "In this land of Gandhi, it appears that nobody follows Gandhi. Follow the Gandhian principle of see no evil. Why don't you simply switch off the TV?"
I feel that the court decision may not be correct which includes the comment " In this land of Gandhi. Why don't you simply switch off the TV?". If an accident/or a bad situation were to happen in the nearby locality do you think a person would walk past the incident by saying "see no evil". If This goes on, Indian culture of good practices would fade away.