New Delhi: Over the last two years, the whole country has woken up to the new phenomenon of reality TV, where lives are made, futures are built and sometimes hearts are broken, all before the gaze of a hungry 'live TV' audience.
When more people pant over an Indian Idol than a Kumkum, and a Great Indian Laughter Challenge gains a TRP feverishly high than any weepy K-soap, you know real life is not boring.
Synergy's KBC may not be reality TV exactly, but when it made so many of us camp near the telephone for days for an entry, we knew that the first germ of interactive TV had arrived.
It was followed by an unprecedented success of American Idol's country cousin Indian Idol. Drawing massive TRP's it was a success which the Indian television industry so desperately wants to replicate.
This explained the boom of reality based talent hunt shows on the idiot box. Super Singer, Fame Gurukul, Roadies, Cinestars ki Khoj, Nach Baliye, Jhalak Dikhla Ja the list goes on.
So when Fly-on-the-wall reality finds so many takers, its clearly because its tadka maar ke. Almost all reality money-spinners run high on passion, rage, tears.
So there, what works for Indians is essentially what always worked for Indians - Intense thetaricals. And the promise of reality is making it much more tempting than saturated fiction.
With the Indian version of Big Brother to be launched soon on Sony TV, the decorum of the drawing rooms will peep further into the bed rooms for a slice of the candid.
So, it's not so much about the underdog sympathy anymore, with the electorate divided between an Abhijeet Sawant and Amit Sana, its increasingly becoming an experience riding high on voyeurism.
As the current boom indicates - the future of small screen entertainment might be interactive voyeuristic reality television. But even as the fight for TRPs gets murkier, the question is - where do we draw the line? How long do we turn a blind eye to the battle for eyeballs?
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