Thursday, January 06, 2011

Bigg Boss breaks his own rules~!

The season 4 of Bigg Boss has been totally biased and disappointing. The reason some people like me even saw the shows, was only due to Salman Khan's presence.

Since the show didn't manage to catch one's interest in the first place, further angering people with biases towards vulgar, loud contestants, the classes only had time to notice bloopers and other loopholes in the show. With Colors' way of handling the show this season, I think it will put the original copyright holders of the show format to shame.

This year, I was angry several times with the organisers. Till last year, lot of rules and behavioural conduct were instilled in the show. KRK was shown the door for hurling a plastic water bottle at a contestant, while in the season prior to that Raja Choudhary was a bundle of bad behaviour and abuses, but went on to reach the finals. And this year, inspite of causing bodily harm to Sameer Soni, Bigg Boss was partial towards her. In fact, the fellow contestants were asked to give her a chance or choose to evict her with Sameer, while Bigg Boss could've taken the decision as in the case of KRK. Dolly passed so many vulgar and personal comments on many contestants, but continued to be pampered by the show organisers (Bigg Boss is just a voice of the organisers, after all!). The aura created in people's mind for Bigg Boss has been shattered. He seems more like a voice of the loud and the vulgar now.

One wonders how much reality there is to the fact that 13 contestants are left alone to themselves. The contestants are well-groomed. You cannot stay groomed automatically without make-up artists keeping your eyebrows in shape, hair trimmed, threading, colouring and a lot more things. Then so many additions are done in garden area at times. This involves people. And many times, it could be done during the day, with contestants being asked not to come out. So they aren't exactly alone. Though there is no paper, calender, watch, the contestants remember dates and days! Many of us forget even otherwise. The camera captures every moment 24 hours, but the show is telecast for an hour. The editing team selects what needs to be shown. What seems like a long grumble in the one hour telecast, would actually be a 5 mins heated exchange of words and what seems like a short fight, may actually be a hour-long drama involving hitting and hurling abuses (like in the Dolly case). In the Dolly eviction episode, her hitting at Sameer was cleverly erased by the organisers. They didn't want her out in the first place, which is why she was so sure of coming back even after being evicted. They wanted her to provide masala to the show. A better way would be to put a bunch of jhopadpatti-walas in the next season. We'll have more 'masala' that way, and the prize money would go to a needy!

Dolly was brought back and to balance it out, Sameer was brought in too. Then next 2 weeks, she was kept 'safe' by first being declared 'Malika-E-Bigg Boss' and then as the captain. In another instance, Bigg Boss wanted to continue Dolly as captain and kept a condition that all can participate and in case of least majority by any, Dolly would be captain by default. But the other contestants were smart (especially Ashmit, who saw through it) and decided that only 3 people volunteer for the position. Another time, groups were made and Khalli was asked to select one group for nomination. Since Khalli was close to Dolly then, again she was saved (with Veena) and Seema was made the scapegoat (because of Sameer).

Dolly has also given a new meaning to 'good grooming' and 'manners' and calls it being FAKE, when she says that she's the only Real person in the house, while others are Fake. According to her being REAL means- Do what you want, say what you feel, abuse people you hate, get nasty if others do not see your viewpoint. And lastly, if people disagree with you, abuse and hit them. Maybe if things get worse, even kill them! Does it sound familiar? Ain't this what un-educated (even many of the uneducated ones are civilised) , un-disciplined, junglees and crooks do? If we have to live like junglees, law, order and discipline would cease to exist. We would tease people, make fun of others, slap those who irritate us, and abuse customers who try to act like kings! Anti-social elements would rule then. I know a relative, who is like her. She will instigate, start fights, abuse, curse and then next day will act as if nothing happened and try to be sweet and project that she did all that because she was right. Thankfully, we stay clear of her ;-)

Dolly was brought back with popular demand - is the contention Bigg Boss gives. The voting was probably held in 'Colors' office. 'Whom do you think will bring more TRPs to the show?' seems to be the question asked to the employees!
Then we had Veena Malik. One helluva confused woman, who was too proud and self obsessed. She added 'oomph' value to the show, and that's why dragged almost till the end. When nominated against Sara Khan, she was saved (that's the time Sara had started criticising Bigg Boss too!). When after lot of hue-n-cry about the content being telecast and behaviour of contestants was highlighted by media, Bigg Boss removed all the misappropriate clothes from contestants' luggage (in an episode where all were asked to leave their bags out, and a few clothes returned back). How did Veena manage to hide her small chaddi (boxer panties) and continue to flaunt it all over the house?!

When Sara Khan tried to highlight the partialities done by Bigg Boss, she was threatened by Bigg Boss and eventually removed the coming Friday. But Dolly was allowed to break an important rule and use it to her advantage. That of bringing outside information inside. When she came back after being evicted, she told Ashmit and Veena that Sara had voted for Veena. Finally she managed to create a rift between the three. Dolly had the benefit to see how she was being projected outside and correct her mistakes, though Sameer was kept in a different room after his eviction and brought back within a week. And the favour given to Sara Khan, which Bigg Boss and later Salman Khan harped on, was only watching the house members from a different room. She did not have the advantage to see herself from outside and check public opinion on herself. Sara Khan herself started silently in a good manner, projecting herself as a kid, but spoiled her good image of television with her questionable behaviour. Veena and Sara have projected an image on television, which even the West will not project on a reality show. Even our so-called notorious Rakhi Sawant and Sambhavna Seth behaved well on the show, and did not cling to someone they did not know. Maybe too much glamour at a young age and discontinuation of studies and being cut off from the real world, has made Sara like that!

Here, even the sms votes are questionable. I wonder how many citizens actually vote for such programmes! Reality shows are no longer a fresh concept they once were. If people keep voting for all such shows, we would be spending 1/3 of our salary on these sms, as the charges are more for special sms. Very few people from the cities vote, as all are busy with their lives. They just watch a show and forget it. It mostly people in the interiors of our country who have lot of leisure time and nothing much for entertainment, who vote. The past voting trends have shown people from smaller towns win shows. Then some of the lower income group from cities also vote, as they get involved with such shows and celebrities mean a lot to them. But over a period of time (years), the overall votes gathered must've definitely dwindled as the reality show concept has aged. This leaves the organisers to take their own discretionary decisions. If I have two contestants, suppose with 11000 and 10400 votes each, 600 votes gives the organisers an advantage point to make a decision in favour of TRPs instead of viewer's choice. And sadly, the lower income group's money is put at stake. This is just my theory, the organisers of reality shows maybe taken more liberties than this!

Of the entire bunch of contestants, we had few well-behaved people like Aanchal (she's a real lady), Sameer, Shweta and surprisingly Seema Parihar. Disappointments were Manoj Tiwari. Though he might be a good fellow, he appeared proud and suspicious. His suspicious nature made him act foolishly in the final episodes before he was voted out. There are a few people like him in real life, who suffer because of their suspicious nature. They might be good (to the extent of helping others), but they get carried away by things, take hasty decisions and in the process hurt people. And at the end of it wonder what wrong they did or why people disapprove of him/ her. Such people will not even appreciate criticism and improve from their actions.

What is called for is that the procedure followed in the show should be auditable. Some shows have their own internal audit. Morever, we have full right to seek information (under RTI) on the number of votes obtained for each episode and also check SOX audit performed for the procedure followed for eliminations. Those who'd like to know what transpired behind the curtains of the Bigg Boss show, do visit the below link and find out ways to exercise your Right to Information:

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