While growing up in the late 2010s, I remember how important the weekends used to be, not just because you got to play under the scorching sun (with a little scolding) or take an afternoon nap (we hated it back then, didn’t we?), it was because the whole family got together to watch reality shows. It was different, from all the saas-bahu dramas on weekdays. Those people were not playing anyone, they were themselves, competing for a prize, having ‘actual’ fights in between. Those tears felt rational, their victories seemed personal, and knowing that those were called ‘reality shows’ didn’t hurt my reality at all.
However, when you see the kind of reality shows the youth today is attracted to, it’s starkly different, for better or worse, from what I grew up on. Today, especially with the rise of OTT platforms, the game has changed completely for reality TV. Let’s trace back the history a little.
When TV became accessible to Indians starting in the late 80s, it opened a new avenue for talent reality shows. In a country where there’s a constant struggle for roti, kapda aur makaan, people needed the motivation – that they could make it big. Thus came the hugely popular Antakshari, Boogie Woogie, Sa Re Ga Ma, Meri Awaz Suno. The prominent guests and judges from the industry and the successe stories of of Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal encouraged artists to try their luck. Parents wanted their kids to feature in the Bournvita Quiz at any cost.
With the turn of the century came a new wave, the adaptations of foreign reality shows, Indian Idol, India’s Got Talent, and X-factor. Such became the charm of the small screen that Big B himself started hosting KBC. This was the decade when youth wanted something more than just singing and dancing and quizzing, they wanted to be the ‘main characters’ of their lives – to showcase their attitude, personalities, and pent-up anger. MTV Roadies became a rage overnight, and the stardoms of Ayushmann Khurrana and Ranvijay gave their ambitions a new dimension. Indian TV reality shows were the best and probably the only outlet for you to present yourself to the world.
Then came the age of social media. The platforms to broadcast your talent were now at your fingertips. Today, anyone can be a singer or a traveler without standing in 50-degree heat in those never-ending audition lines. Social media made creative spaces more democratic and helped the aspiration part. What was left for the reality show-runners? So, then what will keep people hooked? They chose the easiest thing – voyeurism.
It started with shows like Bigg Boss and Splitsvilla which broke every TRP record. In pursuit of emulating this success, when streaming giants like Netflix came to the country, they brought their own flavours to it. Taking inspiration from the West, they brought shows like Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, Indian Matchmaking, and Temptation Island India, and didn’t hesitate to spend hefty sums in promoting them. Turns out, they were not wrong and we always had this latent need for Kardashians-like drama, glam, and glitz with shows like Follow Kar Lo Yaar, Moving in with Malaika, Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives finding innumerable watch times on the screens of today’s youth. Of course, Roadies and Indian Idol still exist and to huge number of eyeballs consume them every day, but they are not consumed on Instagram, they are a thing of Facebook and satellite TV, and we know the mediums of each generation. They have lost their grip and charm, especially among the youth
So Why is the youth so addicted to Public voyeurism? The need for drama for catharsis in our otherwise civilized corporate life is a reason for sure. The cheap thrills, the guilty pleasure, and just pure addiction to enjoying something without any consequence in those fabricated realities give us a certain sense of comfort after a hectic day of work.
What’s the emotion they are trying to evoke in the audience? To become mad at these gorgeous rich people because they seem shallow? Well, we somewhat knew that, right? Do we consume them so religiously because we have an aspiration towards that life with just first-world problems? Or does the compulsion come from the feeling of superiority knowing what we exactly don’t want in life and that we are somehow better than those people at least in some moral aspects? Is it just the gossip they are aiming for? Because sometimes after so many seasons, there still seems to be a lack of drama.
Most of the time, the trashy isn’t trashy enough.