Nuvvu ekkada nunchi vachavu? (where do you come from?)” actress Hema Malini asked Indian Idol aspirant Sreeram Chandra in the last episode. Fans watching in his hometown, Hyderabad were delighted to hear B-town’s dream-girl talk to the young singer from their city in Telugu. Sreeram however quickly switched to Hindi — he knew the consequences of strong linguistic and regional associations in the contest.
Indian Idol, a very popular TV show is being accused of stoking regionalism to up TRP’s. It’s a difficult one to deny when presenters introduce contestants by prefixing their geographical origins to their names, “Dakshin ka anna” or “Rajasthan ka shaan” while contestants themselves try and drum up votes for themselves by asking fans to help uphold the “image of their race”.
The inherent ‘democracy’ in the voting system of the contest also holds its greatest flaw: because votes alone decide the fate of the performers, participants are beginning to claim that if you’re from a region where Hindi programmes are not popular, you will lose.
“Not many in the South watch Hindi channels and there is no SMS vote culture for TV shows here,” says M.S.N. Prasad, father of Indian Idol participant Sreeram Chandra. Prasad himself tries to increase the ‘Telugu’ votes for his son in TV interviews. He explains, “My relatives in Ongole don’t even watch the show. The penetration of this channel and the language is low in South and so it is tough to get votes for my son compared to those from Mumbai or other regions.”
“Since this is a national level contest with participants from across the country, regional feelings are bound to be there. Earlier, singers from South have lost because of lesser SMSes from other parts of the country. As a music composer I don’t like this system of judging through votes. But it is a TRP gimmick to evoke regional feeling,” says Koti, popular music director who has judged several TV music shows.
Hemachandra, ex participant of SaReGaMaPa and now a music director and playback singer in Tollywood attributes his defeat in the last round to ‘regional’ voting. But he realistically maintains that evoking regional emotion brings in popularity and TRPs, “Audiences connect with the show and take it seriously only if there is a regional affiliation. It is more a game of region than of the talent. I lost in the final rounds as not many South Indians watch the show and I got fewer SMSes.”
Now in its fifth season, Indian Idol this year seems to have artificially balanced regional representation to maximize TRPs across the country: one representative each from South India, Gujarat, Bengal, Mumbai and Delhi.
There have even been instances where state governments have made icons of participants, dubbing them ‘brand ambassadors’ for the state while the contest is on. Local film and theatre personalities, politicians and other industrialists have been known to raise campaigns and hoardings supporting the contestant from their region.
Singer and former Indian Idol finalist Karunya however cautions against generalisation saying that if the show was blatantly regionalist, he wouldn’t have even reached finals in the contest. “I am against voting on the basis of regionalism. I had Punjabi, Bengali and supporters from all over the country. I never took the ‘Telugu’ or South slogan but asked people to vote for me only on the basis of my singing,” he says.
Source: www.deccanchronicle.com
Tags: actress Hema Malini, Dakshin ka anna” or “Rajasthan ka shaan, Indian Idol aspirant Sreeram Chandra, Nuvvu ekkada nunchi vachavu
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