Lured by the glamour of reality shows, several parents from the city are seen enrolling their kids into music and dance academies, to brush up their skills before hitting the small screen.
From gyrations and pelvic thrusts to thumping beats of Tollywood tracks to graceful movements of Kuchipudi and from renditions of lilting melodies of Sammathame to the latest Mahesh Babu peppy offering Who Are You? and to comedy shows that leave you in splits, reality shows on the telly have become a platform for realising hopes of fl irting with 15 minutes of fame.
That the participants nurture thinly veiled hopes of recognition - Rubbing shoulders with popular anchors and film and TV stars under the dazzling lights of sets in studios, the works - is no secret. And, with the ever continuing cyclic process of new shows replacing older ones, post the expiry of their shelf life, the number of hopefuls, some as tiny as fouryearsold, who are vying to be a part of these ‘launchpads’ has increased manifold.
TV producers point out that screen space on the telly has taken quite a ‘literal’ turn. While reality shows are hailed as ‘non-fi ction’, television serials on the other hand have been filed away as ‘fiction’. There are at least 15 such nonfi ction programmes, most of them on the late night slot, vying for TRPs on around four channels, each catering to a particular taste.
While Pillalu Pidugulu brings out the cheeky innocence of kids upto five years old and is based on Anupam Kher’s Say Na Something to Anupam Uncle, which in turn was inspired by legendary stand up comic Bill Crosby’s Kids Say the Darndest Things, Modern Mahalakshmi is a game show only for women. Popular faces from comedian Ali to ‘dialogue king’ Saikumar and actor-turnedpolitician Roja have been roped in to host these shows.
Musician and choreographer alike observe that the trend of participants sharpening their dancing skills with various dance academies or taking lessons in singing to hit those high octaves and to negotiate their way into a song through challenging raagas giving them an edge over other contestants has been in vogue ever since the advent of these shows on TV.
Take for instance Avinash, cofounder of Rock On School of Music in Gachibowli. He says that Vineet, a 10-year-old student, a participant of popular reality show Bol Baby Bol aired on Gemini TV, has been learning to play the guitar for past few months. “Though Bol Baby Bol is basically a singing show, Vineet sometimes plays the guitar during his performances. Many participants are getting trained in various disciplines of song and dance to enter these shows so that they have an upper hand over their competitors,” Avinash says.
Prabhu Shadrach, guitarist and cofounder of Full Volume, a musical instruments store in Banjara Hills echoes Avinash’s views. He observes that the trend which gained momentum around two years ago is still flourishing.
“There are many participants who are going to lesser known dance and vocals trainers. Since time is a constraint, they look for shorter courses which may not be available at popular training institutes,” he observes.
Others like music teacher Sudeshna Gupta are against reality shows for children. “Children who go for these shows burn out quickly and their lives are spoilt. I am against competition as it gives birth to unhealthy enmity,” she says.
Producers, on the other hand, maintain that more than the coercion of parents, it is the innate ability and latent talent of children which catapult them onto various stages of these reality shows. Hemant Apte, producer of Bale Chance Le, a game show on MAA TV says, “A child forcibly pushed into a show will clearly seem disinterested.
This won’t work well for the programme. Most participants are genuinely interested. The exposure to such shows has increased which has resulted in a deluge of potential participants,” he says. He adds that ‘non-fiction” has served the purpose of gaining an increased viewership by capturing an audience which largely is not interested or has the time to watch ‘fi ction’.
Some from the industry say that participants apart, even artistes keep ‘squabbling’ to be a part of reality shows on account of their high TRP ratings and expansive viewer base.
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