 "Music Katha Ha"  "Music Pitae ha "  Lover Boy Amit |
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Northeast Echoes
PATRICIA MUKHIM
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| John Abraham with Prashant and Amit during the Indian Idol final. A file picture |
When reality TV bites
Reality television shows make instant celebrities out of ordinary human
beings. No one knows this better than the latest Indian Idol winner, Prashant
Tamang and runner-up Amit Paul. While the celebrities are thousands of miles
away from their hearths and homes and both have displayed incredible maturity
and magnanimity, one in winning the title, the other in losing it, their fans
are not quite so forgiving. Reacting to what some impudent radio jockey had to
say about Tamang, his fans erupted violently. Tamang himself is on a tour of
Nepal. The last sound bites from him came from Kathmandu where he appealed to
his fans to maintain calm.
Idol hysteria
A week before the Indian Idol grand finale, the hysteria in Darjeeling and
Shillong had reached blistering heights. So sure were people of their idol’s
win that fans in Shillong and Darjeeling were just counting the hours to
celebrate. It’s a different story that Shillong descended into a pall of gloom
once John Abraham announced the winner. People were not so much affected by
the loss as they were by Sony Television’s apparent lack of transparency in
the manner in which they conducted the voting. A voting essentially means that
both winner and loser know how much they polled. This is in the fitness of
things. It would have satisfied the supporters. In the case of the runner-up,
his fans would know where they went wrong and what they could have done
better. Sony’s announcement that a total of seven crore votes were polled
sounds too glib. No one believes that the process was completely above board.
In a voting process that is transparent, both participants must have their
agents who will officiate as independent observers. Otherwise how do people
get to know the truth behind the voting?
The Civil Society Women’s Organisation which worked in tandem with the
Shillong Arts and Music Lovers Forum have called for a CBI probe into this
whole voting system of Sony TV. They have also expressed their resentment at
the Meghalaya government’s invitation of Sony TV to Amit Paul’s homecoming
event.
Price of fame
Last week has been hectic for Amit fans and all those organisations that
claimed to have worked round the clock to whip up support for him. Each one
wants to be part of the momentous homecoming of the Idol runner-up. But Amit
Paul has apparently written to the government that he would prefer that the
occasion be government-led and sponsored so that no single organisation takes
the credit for doing so.
Amit Paul does have a point. His homecoming on September 3 was a traumatic
one. He could not spend more than a couple of minutes at his own home with his
loved ones. Somebody, somewhere decided that he faced a security risk and
cordoned him off completely from the crowd. Exaggerated claims that Sony TV
asked for security bandobast have been floating around but no one knows if
there is an iota of truth in that. Amit’s parents and his family members were
most distraught at the way in which their son’s life was being controlled. His
sudden rise to fame and the celebrity status he acquired were something they
had not bargained for.
But the reality television show has also triggered a host of questions. One
question is why a runner up in a show gets absolutely nothing at all
considering the channel has raked in millions from SMSs and phone calls
nationally and internationally? It was Maruti’s own initiative and their
commitment to excellence, which prompted them to give Amit a vehicle. They
deserve appreciation for that. But what about Sony TV? Why has the channel
treated Amit like a “use by date” commodity after they have made maximum
capital out of the lad? These questions are never asked and therefore they are
never answered. As a result reality television shows continue to make money,
no questions asked.
While a section of the entertainment media has today become a cut-throat
business enterprise, it is imperative that they play by some rules and that
those rules are not entirely dictated by them. Viewers who pay to watch the
shows are as much entitled to set down some ground rules as the channel is to
engage with people.
Vote based
The spate of reality shows on different channels, many of them purportedly
looking for singing talent, have in a sense opened up avenues for small town
boys and girls to make it big in life. Unfortunately, talent is often given a
miss because of the heavy dependence on public votes. So, the best singers are
voted out merely because the towns they come from are either too small to make
a big difference through voting, or because the rest of India is not
interested in watching the show, leave alone voting. So the big question is
whether the channels are really on a talent hunt or a money-making spree.
India’s greatest singer, Lata Mangeshkar had expressed her opinion that public
voting is not the best way to look for talent. Her opinion is that only people
with experience in and an understanding of music can alone judge a good voice.
But perhaps Indian Idol is not really about singing as much as it is about
performance. And the criteria on which people vote are too wide ranging. Some
vote for looks, some for the voice, others because somebody is from their
community and still others because they identify with the singer’s
professional background.
Those from Assam who have scaled new heights in the singing world, namely,
Debojit Saha and Zubeen Garg, have their own take on reality shows and their
talent hunt. While Saha feels that public voting is the best way out, and that
is understandable considering he won the contest through public votes, Garg
who got in through personal grit feels that the public is an unreliable judge
because it votes for reasons other than voice quality. Many would agree with
Garg especially after watching the manner in which Deepali, Emon, Puja and
Parleen were voted out of the Indian Idol contest in the early days. In terms
of voice quality they were heads and shoulders above Prashant Tamang. Yet
Tamang was consistently voted in because he had a committed vote bank.
Different version
In the Northeast, horizons are now opening up for those with a good voice.
Believe it or not, Mizoram has its own version called Mizo Idol where the
winner takes back with him or her a host of gifts such a refrigerator and
other kitchen appliances. When friends in Mizoram were contacted to seek
support for Amit, they said that the Mizo Idol show happened at the same time
as the Indian Idol one so they had not watched the latter. Subsequently, the
Amit pitch reached Mizoram too.
Assam is soon taking off with its own version of a music talent hunt contest.
However, it is not depending entirely on votes. The show will have a set of
celebrity judges, who are celebrated singers in their own right and whose
opinions will matter. Voting will of course have its own weightage. Happening
in the hub of Northeast India at Guwahati, this show will hopefully give an
opportunity to many aspiring singers to grow into music stars, maybe not in
Bollywood but within the film and music industry of the region. It is time to
make music a paying proposition. As of today, music is a wasted talent that
does not provide a profitable opening except if you make it to Bollywood.
Maybe it is time to change the equations. The bottomline, however, is that
film music pays and Bollywood pays even better. So for the moment that seems
like the proverbial pie in the sky.
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