Reality show Music reality shows have mushroomed because there seems to be a market for it
Yes, of course we know that. In reality, they are no reality shows. All of them, even the sub-genre of television music reality shows, the game shows or competitions, follow a well-defined script with a large, regular dose of drama and sentiments thrown in.
Television channels, whether they are a music-entertainment channel or not, have been quick to realise that a safe way to reach out to the masses, especially the youth, is a music show. It is what usually gets them the ratings and interactivity.
Despite loud voices that attempt to shout down these music programmes as simply ‘TRP-lusty' or ‘pre-scripted' shows that only ‘kill quality music,' such entertainment slots seem to be the order of the day. No wonder there is a scramble to cash in on this growing interest.
‘Indian Voice,' one such musical show launched on ‘Mazhavil Manorama' late last year, had the advantage of stopping the holes of earlier shows and even attempting to bring in something different.
“Right from the beginning we decided that ‘Indian Voice' will not follow an earlier pattern. Before we announced the auditions we resolved that it will not have SMS votes, there will be no brutal dissection from the judges, emcees who will speak good Malayalam and prime focus on singing,” informs Unnikrishnan C., producer of ‘Indian Voice.' The show stands out for its HD quality, brilliant lights and sets by Shyam Bhatia.
The biggest challenge that Unnikrishnan and his team confronted was to get ‘some really talented singers.' And for this they formulated a multi-stage filtration process.
Kavalam Sreekumar did the tough, selection process from among nearly 1,500 contestants. Initially there were around 3,000 applications from all over the country. “A dedicated team went to all these centres and did the preliminary selection. They graded the contestants and picked 1,500 of the top graded singers. They were then judged by Kavalam Sreekumar.”
For nine days Sreekumar went through the visuals, watching and listening to the singers. “I was apprehensive in the beginning but gradually realised that I was listening to some really good singers, some different voices. There were a few who had been trained and this showed. Most of them sang on sheer natural talent. I graded them and shortlisted 100 singers,” says Kavalam Sreekumar.
Out of the 100 selected, 78 came for the three-day grooming session conducted by Sreevalsan J. Menon and Anand Vaidyanathan. They also go through regular yoga sessions by R. Roopesh. The two-permanent judges, Sreenivasan and Sujatha listened to them and selected the final 25 contestants.
Grooming process
“The grooming process was organised very professionally. We talked to them on voice, what a composer looks for, how it is to be used in recordings, live performances, backed with power-point presentation. I think they were fortunate for nobody told me all this when I started off, observes Sreevalsan J. Menon. That was the theoretical framework.”
Moving into the new year ‘Indian Voice' has seen S. Janaki, P. Susheela, B. Vasantha, Shankar Mahadevan, Nityasree Mahadevan, Mano, P. Unnikrishnan, Sadhna Sargam, Karthik and the likes as part of the judging panel and a host of poets, lyricists, composers, singers and others as celebrity judges.
There have been a few glitches too. Singers found it difficult rendering, especially the start, of popular songs when it was backed up by an innovative and new background score. Some of the judges like S. Janaki even made a mention of this. “Our intention was in no way to better the master composers. Most of the songs were so popular that getting it out of the head often became tough. We wanted to see how they fared when faced with a new background score instead of what they were so familiar with. They went through so many rehearsals but some of them still floundered when they came on stage. Maybe they could not pick the clue,” feels Stephen Devassy, whose magic on the keyboard certainly enhances the show.
This and more happen when the contestants perform under pressure to give their best. There have been so many cases when they have gone into severe depression. No one likes to be shouted at in front of the world!
“This is another thing we sorted out. We instructed the judges not to scoff or say anything that can break the confidence of the singers. Whatever they need to say can be done off-stage. We don't even want them jotting down anything as it would be very distracting for the performer,” says Unnikrishnan.
Whatever be the ‘bad' of these shows the fact remains that they provide a huge platform for young singers and an opportunity to be groomed, trained and judged by the best in the industry.
K. PRADEEP
