“The biggest challenge was psychological. Keeping calm and controlling my mind was the most difficult aspect of the game. I knew that I had to conquer my irrationality,” said the actor Rajneesh Duggal, winner of the fifth series of the reality show Khatraon Ke Khiladi . When he decided to participate in the show, he mostly focused on his ability to concentrate and to control his mind through yoga.
Competitors had to overcome several contests where their body and their mind were put on probation. “The scariest event, for me, was when we had to stay in a box with sixty snakes and a crocodile. I knew I could not control them, if they would have decided to bite me. It could have happened every moment. Since I am particularly scared of snakes and I do not like reptiles in general it was a double challenge for me,” said the winner. When faced with the hardest challenges he prayed and chanted mantras to keep away his fears.
Unveiling weaknesses and frights is, indeed, what made reality shows so famous. What the naturally curious audience enjoy is the chance to see reactions to absurd situations while sitting comfortably in front of their television sets without facing any risk.
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The show was organized to be as real as possible and the trials were communicated to the participants just some minutes before the happening. The situation led to a maximum level of stress: they had no time to train or to prepare their mind.
Despite all the efforts to be real, a show is always a show: the participants know that there is a huge audience and they will act accordingly. When a person knows that he is being captured by a camera, his behaviour will surely be influenced.
Furthermore reality shows have become a sort of new platform for achieving success and image building during this kind of shows has a particular importance. Either you can be seen as a brave person or you can be perceived as a coward. Sometimes this can be a little risky, especially for muscular actors who traditionally play the role of movie heroes and are often expected to be particularly strong and courageous in real life too. Asked about this, Rajneesh answered that: “Participating and, maybe, becoming the winner can obviously help you in your personal career and can improve the image that you have among the people. It sort of takes you two steps forward”.
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