How India’s Got Talent’s final episode ruined the whole season?

Reality television busted the dullness of Indian television few years ago with its attention-grabbing scripts and out-of-the box ideas. The prime time shows still rule the TRPs however reality shows have been successful in creating a niche for themselves. These reality shows are based on themes such as talent hunt, celebrity based shows, game shows and many more but they all have one thing in common – they either place ordinary people in extra-ordinary situations or celebrities in real-life situations and then let viewers enjoy the masala flavor.

Now the question is – Are these Reality Shows truly real? If you think this is a controversial question, well we have made our point. The credibility and realism of these shows are forever arguable. But we do have more than enough examples to prove that most of the time these reality shows are “STAGED” and “SCRIPTED” to the core. We are living in a time where people don’t mind putting their personal life in public to make a quick buck and viewers get excited as they get their daily dose of cheap fun in the name of “reality”.

Let’s look at what happened at the recent grand finale of India’s Got Talent aired on Colors:

• The whole episode of finale was “sold” to a movie that was being released soon -Ra.One (yes, SRK starrer).
• All final performances had something or other to do with Ra.One, although these         performances were not accounted for voting.
• The special guest was Shahrukh Khan, who of course was there to promote Ra.One
• He gave away autographed posters/standees, G.One toys etc to the contestants during   the show.
• Though the show promoters or Shahrukh didn’t promote Ra.one overtly (by beating their chests), but still it was very evident.
• SRK was promoting the brand SRK itself, alongside (as usual).

All the above mentioned highlights gave the grand finale a kick and (so called) perfect entertainment. But somehow I felt the show lost it’s originality and charm and everything looked like a paid gimmick.

This was the trendsetter in India’s Reality TV, with an entire episode sold to Ra.One for promotions.

Now contrary to above we also have few shows that still haven’t lost their touch and share of “reality”. I personally followed the complete season of MasterChef India last time and it was indeed a great pleasure to watch it. The rationale is effortless – the show kept itself away from any kind of controversies and cheap publicity gimmicks. The show’s simple yet appealing concept kept the interest in it. The winner of last season Pankaj Bhadouria now hosts her own show “Chef Pankaj ka Zayka” on Star Plus. Yes, agreed having a star (Akhsay Kumar) might have helped to gain TRPs initially but the second season which will be on air by next week has dropped Akshay and roped in world’s famous India based Chef Vikas Khanna.

Although you can argue about the “type” of content of both the reality shows but important thing to note here is that soul of a reality show should remain intact. Otherwise it looks fake and disoriented. Do you guys feel the same?