Television 'tamasha'

I’m sure a large number of the populace that would never have bothered tuning in to the Star Screen Awards will do so this evening simply to watch the ell publicised on stage shenanigans of Messrs. Gowarikar, Khan, Khan and Kumar.

You would have to be a Himalayan hermit not to have heard of Akshay Kumar’s questionable magnanimity in leaving his Most Popular Actor award on stage for Aamir Khan or of the flared tempers and ruffled egos of Ashutosh Gowarikar, Sajid and Farah Khan.

There was a time when such awkward and controversial moments would have been expediently expunged from the final television telecast so that the organisers could save face and present a sanitised version of the proceedings to the general public.

In fact, an embittered Ashutosh actually said as much on stage: that he knew his comments would be edited out of the final telecast but he was still going to vent his spleen regardless.

Much to everyone’s surprise not only did the channel in question not delete all the controversial bits but rather went to town promoting the entire award show on the basis of the brouhaha it had created, hammering these snippets over and over again across various news channels.

Today television is less about grabbing viewer eyeballs and more about grabbing them by the b***s itself so that they are utterly compelled to watch what is being beamed into their living rooms by TRP ravenous channels.

And there is absolutely no shortage of shrewd politicians, struggling starlets, established actors, even industrialists who have learnt to play the media game and shamelessly indulge in this television tamasha to further their cause.

Some like Rakhee Sawant, whose provocative public persona has been created entirely through her attention hogging antics on TV, went to the extent of also indulging in a television tamacha — actually slapping her loser boyfriend in front of scores of TV cameras just to garner some cheap publicity on Valentine’s Day.

Another media maverick, Rahul Mahajan, superbly utilised the power and reach of television to re-invent and redeem him self. In a matter of weeks he metamorphosed from controversial druggie and wife beater to lovable rake and ladies man.

Amar Singh and Lalu Prasad are two gurus of this game and have used television
masterfully to manipulate the masses.

Amar Singh’s newest protégé has also recently realised the power of TV — Sanju baba and spouse are now doling out “exclusive”  interviews to every news channel to effectively counter his disappointed sister’s diatribe.

Every reality show contestant and judge is also expected to play a part in the TRP tamasha which invariably involves abusing or slapping your comrades, staging walkouts, faking nervous breakdowns and generally behaving like a prize imbecile.

We the people, of course, hungrily and shamelessly gobble all this up tripe since we are starved for any wholesome entertainment.

Continuing the food analogy, I conclude with a meaty quote —  “Television is a medium because it’s extremely rare to find any thing on it that’s well done.”

I should know — I have been a television producer for the past 15 years!