Decoding reality

In his novel 1984, George Orwell drew a terrifying picture of an approaching totalitarian era in which every individual would be spied upon by the all-seeing eye of the ruling despot, Big Brother. Things did not quite turn out this way. Or did they? It is interesting to speculate on what Orwell would have made of the fact that Big Brother is the name of one of the biggest primetime hits of the early 21st century on which people in the free world volunteer to, and are actually rewarded for, surrendering their privacy and freedom. Or that in India, the ancient land of his birth, people are vying, claiming life-threatening diseases, agitating and even contemplating legal action to be on Bigg Boss, the local version of the show.

Life however is full of such ironies. It is hard to imagine, for instance, that anybody who first envisaged putting a television frame on real life wasn’t laughed out of the studios. Yet, reality TV is the hottest concept of the last decade and, as the success of major shows abroad and our home-grown spin-offs, Kaun Banega Crorepati, Nach Baliye and now, Bigg Boss, proves, is worth millions not just in ratings but in the acres of free publicity that follow in its wake.

What exactly is reality TV though? There is no clear definition of the term. The genre that is believed to have had its origins in recorded pranks for the popular American show, Candid Camera, and the more recent cinema verite style COPS is still a somewhat nebulous concept, including in its ambit a whole range of sub-genres from game shows like How to Be Millionaire/ KBC, talent competitions like Dance With the Stars/ Jhalak Dikhla Jaa/ Nach Baliye, job hunts such as The Apprentice and ESPN’s forthcoming Dream Job, talk shows, makeovers, dating shows such as The Bachelor and fly-on-the-wall programmes such as COPS and Bigg Boss. As with soaps, reality shows are also graded in the public mind, shows based on talent-based competitiveness or expertise such as American Idol being considered higher quality than those exploiting the personal (shows offering women prize money to entice a man) and the private, such as Big Brother.

In fact, Big Brother, with its intrusive 24-hour surveillance, cut-throat competitiveness and conventional mix of minor or over the hill celebrities, is perceived to have a somewhat downmarket appeal in the West. At the same time, the show that spawned the Indian Bigg Boss is a top-rated one in terms of viewership in 70-odd countries. Why do people agree to live in a secluded house full of strangers and hidden cameras for several weeks? And why do millions of people tune in to watch?

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