From politicians to molls, Bollywood stars to stand-up comics, reality television is the launch pad for a million ambitions
Everybody wants to be on television. Hanit Taneja did. So, five months ago, the 28-year-old from Ludhiana, shut his flourishing business, gathered his lakh-plus savings and headed for Mumbai—to be a singing star on the family singing contest, Waar Parriwar on Sony TV. With him was another rebel smitten by primetime, his cousin Amit Sharma who skipped his MA examinations and fought with his parents to get to the small screen. You wouldn’t have forgotten that petulant wannabe, RPI chief Ramdas Athawale. The politician from Maharashtra threw a tantrum and his supporters ransacked the office of the new channel, Colors, because he wasn’t included in Bigg Boss 2. At least, he got his 15 minutes of notoriety.
Former MP and political has-been Sanjay Nirupam got more than his share of attention during his brief stint on Bigg Boss 2. Though the first to be evicted from the show, Nirupam hopes it will help him find his way out of political wilderness. For the moment, though, he has “item girls” gunning for him and a Facebook group titled ‘Sanjay Nirupam’s fans’, with members from Mumbai to Milwaukee. “This has definitely increased my popularity among women and kids. I was able to reach out to people who neither understand nor have the inclination to understand politicians,” he says.  

The small screen today is a crowded place, thanks to an explosion of reality television. From Bollywood biggies Shah Rukh and Salman Khan to wannabe singers from Jharkhand, from gangster’s moll Monica Bedi to the freshly-divorced son of a murdered politician (Rahul Mahajan), it has become the launch pad for a million ambitions—not to mention the billions of rupees riding on it.
According to a FICCI–PriceWaterhouse Cooper’s report on Indian entertainment and media industry, the television industry in 2007 was Rs 226 billion. Reality TV accounts for a substantial part.
The Indian reality show, however, has little to do with real life. It’s a version of Bollywood masala, complete with razzmatazz, song, dance and judges bent on melodrama. But if television and how it’s transforming the country is the big story of our times, its protagonist is the aam aadmi. At the moment, over 10 reality shows are on air across channels. More than half are dedicated to common-man aspirants.
Shows like Waar Parriwar and the recently concluded Rock-n-Roll Family (Zee TV), that had three generations of families dancing together, give encouraging parents and elders a chance to graduate from being cheerleaders to participants. A shy grandmother, Rita Chakraborty of Naihati, who had never danced all her life, agreed to take part in Rock-n-Roll Family to bail her daughter and dancer son-in-law’s family out of financial crisis. “If I can hop, skip and jump, I can shake a hip too.” She did and won the show and the prize of Rs 50 lakh.

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