Touchy Feely Telly

The public challenges celebrity decisions and judges them on their bedroom manners. Celebs pay homage to middle-class mummies and their kids. The real success of celebreality shows is that they set a level playing field for People Like Us and Them

A recent article in the New York Times used the new Bollywood model — where, as the entertainment market becomes increasingly splintered, what works in one part of the country does not work in another — to ask if there is any such thing as a pan India hit anymore. The important subtext to the question: is our entertainment — now divided into ‘multiplex’ and ‘mass’ markets — symbolic of the growing divide between the two Indias: the one that lives in its metros versus the rest?

Yet, even as the argument over whether Real India will ever meet Shining New India continues to preoccupy intellegentsia and Indian-economy watchers alike, it is witnessing a whole new playing ground. Your television set. All through this year, as celebrity reality TV or “celebreality” shows have met with aspirational reality TV, featuring the common man as hero, the two worlds have been engaging like never before.

When Sohail Khan appeared as a celeb judge on The Great Indian Laughter Challenge on Star One last week, the stand-up comedians on stage took potshots at him and his brother Salman Khan. One of the participants said that the only difference between the two brothers is that Sohail wears his shirt and Salman doesn’t. It finally inspired Sohail to get up and say, “I want to take off my shirt as well.” Whether it is the public voting out celebs in Bigg Boss or Javed Jaffery paying homage to the country’s ‘mummies’ in Boogie Woogie, TV is suddenly bursting with touchy-feely moments between celebs and the masses.

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Celebrity reality TV has been a huge concept abroad with shows like Paris Hilton’s The Simple Life and Jessica Simpson’s The Newlyweds, while reality shows featuring ordinary people , from Survivor to The Real World, are innumerable. In India, though, what’s working in reality TV is a unique formula, a juxtaposition of celebrities with the ordinary man.

In the TRP-game, TV programming has moved from being passive to more interactive, says TAM India, CEO, LV Krishnan. “Idol worship is so strong in our country, that we need more celebs. From using B-grade celebs to creating their own celebs, reality shows are trying it all.” A format that merges celeb quotient with the common man is ideal for generating higher TRPs.