Reporters chasing ghosts, the grandstanding of tantriks and snakes turning into humans—television channels are on a diet of the bizarre. The bigger question—why are we surfing superstition?

On march 3, Sanal Edamaruku of Rationalist International found himself facing a curious challenge. During a discussion on “Tantrik power versus science” on news channel India TV, a tantrik, Pandit Surinder Sharma, declared his intention to kill him.
“The tantrik claimed that he could kill anybody he wanted within three minutes by using black magic. A combination of wheat flour, butter oil, paper, mustard seeds and mantras was all he needed, he said,” recalls Edamaruku. “To expose him I said ‘Kill me’. He took up the challenge.” An hour and many mantras later, on a live telecast, Edamaruku was alive and smiling and the tantrik was desperate. “Though he said he would kill me without having to touch me, he kept touching me. He even waved a knife at me. When nothing worked, he claimed the technique worked only at night. So the channel held a special show at midnight, where the tantrik brought ashes from a cremation ground. After an hour or so, he had failed to kill me. But he said I would die that night. The next day, when he was questioned, he said I should be dead in three days. Since I wasn’t dead by then, he said I would die in the next 21 days! That was months ago,” says Edamaruku.

The tantrik may not have achieved his objective but India TV had managed to milk the contest between superstition and reason for TRPs (Television Rating Points). On most days, the channel does just that. News programmes that feature an Aghori puja (where certain sadhus claim to use ashes from the cremation grounds) held in Ujjain or ghosts haunting a village is standard fare for the channel.
It’s not the only one chasing viewership with ghosts, shadows and superstitions. Hindi news channels excel in the game, often telecasting more mumbo-jumbo than actual news.
Snakes are a big hit with the channels. A few months ago, Star News even produced a woman on their show who claimed to be a serpent in her last life. She and the TV cameras then went in search for her snake-lover from a past life. She then claimed a young man from her village was the lover. The “re-united couple” was brought to the studio for a discussion. The occult is another big favourite. Aaj Tak had a show on its prime-time evening news slot in January about ghosts opening and closing a glass almirah and making an appearance for the camera. It also had a regression ‘expert’ on a news show who claimed to take people back to their last birth.
There is no denying that the Hindi news channels playing on the superstition and astrology cards are making a lot of money. The Television Audience Measurement (TAM) figures for month of June–July 2008 for Hindi channels shows that India TV and Aaj Tak rule the charts with a 19 per cent channel share, followed by Star News at 15 per cent and IBN 7 and Zee News at 7 per cent each. That means the channels that dabble in predictions, superstitions and bhoot pret get the highest viewership. And ads follow where the viewers are.

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