Oct 21, 2008

Entertainment - India;Is reality stranger than fiction ?

Albert Almeida

“Is there not an overdose of reality shows on Indian television?” is the question I am often asked by many a journalist friend. At first I was defensive in answering this question and was often guilty of being short and abrupt with my response. I think it is partly because one felt the question came almost like a personal assault of sorts because one happens to represent the network that truly pioneered the advent of this genre in the country with the path breaking reality format Indian Idol (which is now in its fourth successful season).

It was not just this but many other innovative ones that followed on the back of this successful show like Jhalak Dikha Ja, Naya Roop Nayi Zindagi (Extreme Makeover), Comedy Circus and even the premier’s of Bigg Boss and Fear Factor on Indian television that strengthened this perception.

Having been, in a way, accused of being party to driving the reality juggernaut or as some say the “overkill” of reality shows on Indian television let me first share my personal belief and unabashed support for the genre. I believe reality shows make for truly great entertainment especially if they stay true to the core of their existence and that is for being real. If they do so, they have the unmatched quality of being pure, of being not scripted, of not being manipulated—all of which makes for a great journey of unpredictable twists, turns and what gets thrown out is great content that is rich in a myriad of emotions making for great entertainment.

Further, for the viewer, there is a clear destination and journey to follow. Having seen this on show after show we have produced, and having understood this essence I have rid myself of the guilt of feeling persecuted for having had a hand in bringing this genre to our viewers here in India. On the contrary one takes pride in giving Indian viewers something new and clutter breaking!

I think there are two issues we need to understand and debate here. One, what does this label, reality show, that we keep attaching to our shows really mean to a viewer? And two, how much is too much?

My view on the first issue is that viewers do not attach labels the way we in the industry do to shows. They recognise shows as brands and they stick with those brands that mean something to them and provide them with entertainment they see value in—pretty much like any conventional brand that would either satisfy a functional or emotional need or both. It’s when viewers start rejecting me-too brands or brands that do not fulfill a need that we start reading it as overkill. If this were the issue you would not have viewers waiting for and giving a thumps up to successive seasons of shows like Indian Idol.

As far as the second issue is concerned, while I have partly addressed it already, I want to lean on some statistics to make my point. If we look across channels in the general entertainment category, all channels without exception have nearly a 70:30 skew in favour of fiction or scripted shows. How come we never seem to ask the question—is there an overkill of fiction shows, or an overkill of a certain kind of fiction show even though there are a large number of them struggling to cut through and garner a share of the viewers’ time?

The truth is that you cannot hold the number of shows as being the reason for the lack of traction—be it fiction or reality. You do not have to look to deep but rather think of it simply—are all reality or scripted shows fulfilling the needs of our viewers? The answer is a clear no.

If there is a successful music reality show, we believe we can all create a me too that will succeed and the same for dance and so on and so forth. What can be confidently said in favour of great reality shows is that they are clutter breakers, audience builders and revenue drivers. So rather than treat them as stranger than fiction and blame the quantum of shows as the issue, we need to follow the simple principle of not dishing out more of the same. But dish out more differently.

—The author is executive vice-president & business head, Sony Entertainment Television

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