Promoting female contestants aggressively on reality TV music shows seems to be the new mantra for celebrity judges on the small screen. While Himesh Reshammiya has been going on with the line that the winner of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009 has to be a girl, the latest to join the club is Indian Idol ’s judge Sonali Bendre.
An upset Sonali broke down in a recent episode when a favourite female contestant of hers, Shini Kalvint from Gwalior, was voted out. Sonali, who has been rooting for girls from the beginning of the show, was visibly upset when Shini and another contestant Bhavya landed in the unsafe zone during the elimination round.
When Shini was ousted, Sonali went up to her and said, “ I think there is a problem with the Indian audience who suffer from serious gender bias. It’s extremely difficult for a married woman to make it to a reality show and Shini had courageously come so far. If the audience cannot offer support, then we must eliminate all the girls and have only boys on the show.” In the previous season of Indian Idol , judge Alisha Chinai had expressed her desire to see a female contestant as winner, but she was not as aggressive as Sonali. “ Looking at the audience verdict, I feel sad. I wonder why I accepted being a judge on the show as I cannot handle this ( gender bias),” Sonali added.
Though encouraging Indian voters to support girls is a good idea, considering no female contestant has ever won a reality music show yet, insiders insist the reason lies elsewhere. “ Television has always been dominated by its female viewer base. And with the staple saas- bahu formula becoming obsolete, reality TV is trying to capture this loyal viewer base by promoting female contestants. These producers are not at all concerned about promoting women.
For them, it is a matter of boosting TRPs,” said a TV producer.
You somehow feel there might be some truth in that charge watching Reshammiya on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009 . Last season, Himesh’s favourite contestant was Aneek Dhar and the composermentor never seemed interested in promoting girls. Kolkata boy Aneek, who came into the show as the winner of the Bengal edition of the show, went on to win the programme.
This season, Himesh has been promoting Vaishali, winner of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Marathi , who belongs to his Rock gharana — one of the groups in which contestants have been divided. Seconding Himesh is Shankar Mahadevan whose Lakshya gharana has a strong battalion of female singers. On the other hand, Pritam Chakraborty of Dhoom gharana and Aadesh Srivastava of Jai Ho gharana are rooting for boys. No prizes for guessing that promoting males is their best shot at lifting the trophy.
Sanjay Upadhyay, head of Fiction Programming, Sony, rejects charges that girls are being promoted to pull the female audience base. “ Our channel wants to create history by having a female winner on Indian Idol . That doesn’t mean we are promoting the girls needlessly. They are getting votes on the basis of their talent,” he said.
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