A real talent hunt show or A fake stage show ?

Today reality shows have gripped entire TV channels. Every channel is hosting one or other kind of reality shows. Be it Indian Idol or SaReGaMaPa Pratham Vishwyudh or Voice of India or Jhalak Dikhala Ja or Little Champ and many more in pipe lines. Every channel is in competition to find next generation sensational singers like Sonu Nigam, Udit Narayan, Shaan or sizzling dance couple. The concept of finding raw talent and at the same time making it viable business idea is great innovation. Old proverb: Necessity is the mother of Innovation. As viewers were bored of K-factor, SAAS-BAHU saga and same family-quarrels, the reality show generated immense interest among public. It gave fresh dose of gossips over dinner table. It increased the viewership and popularity of TV channels among the people. The TRP of show is sky high. Channel happy! . Participants happy!. Audience happy!. Everything seems to be going fine ? Does it look so nice and going well with the time ?

If we look and observe each reality show, format of each show is same.
1. Each participant is mugging a song and imitating the original singers. Some get applause like you have sung better than what original singers did with this song. Bravo!!! God bless you! (excessively used phrase by judges)
2. Junta decide the fate of participants through SMS voting. (Democracy rules!!!)
3. Film stars/Debutant actors are paying guest appearance to judge the quality of singing of participants. Our stars are multi-talented or marketing guru of channel using them to ruthlessly increase TRP ?
4. Judges quarrelling over points to back their favourite participants and sometimes they appeal for vote to junta so that real talents don't get eliminated. WOW!!! Guru-Shishy ka pyar :)
5. Participants who don't make into next round, receive tearful farewell. Judge goes on announcing that he would leave the SHOW if his/her favourite participant gets eliminated. Athough you will see the same judge cheering and clapping for other participant in next show as nothing he had promised to junta in previous show ;)
6. Entire film cast promoting film on the show. During one such promotion at popular reality show, one of the judges Himesh Rashamiya claimed-whoever promoted the film on this show became blockbuster. Good! I would request Ram Gopal Verma to promote his films on this show to get at least one HIT.

It's no doubt that these reality shows have large number of viewers. But with addition of bollywood-glamour and SMS voting, these shows have turned into mere money machines for channels. Recently top finalists of Voice of India had visited Lata Mangeshar on her birthday.
She said-' It's very easy to mug a song and copy original singer. If you try your own song then you will realise where you stand. If public voting decide "who is better singer" then what these highly paid judges do in shows ? ' She certainly meant that to find great singer the basic format of the competition has to be changed. One SMS vote costs RS 6. In the final round of the show, channel claims to get TEN crores vote . It means the one final show generates revenue of Rs. 60 crores only through SMS voting. Forget about the advertisements and ticket sales. The channels defend the SMS voting, saying any participant getting maximum votes among the public should get the chance. As he/she is more popular than their competitors so public will buy and listen his/her songs. I do agree. Then why don't they make the SMS voting toll free so that more public will vote to find great singer ? Why don't they make such restriction like one vote per mobile number or landlines number ? So that multiple voting by a single person can be controlled. Sometimes these SMS voting is state sponsored. Current example is the fierce voting rivalry between Prashant Tamang and Amit Paul in Indian Idol3 show. Their respective governments opened all their state telephone services free of cost for voting their candidates. Just imagine the way the budding singing talent is recognised. These shows have produced one dozen of finalists since last 3 years but only one finalist Abhijeet Sawant has came up with one album release. He has gained moderate success but rest are seen no where. Even judges of the shows are not so convinced to give break to their own Shishy. These idols have to go long way to prove themselves.

With epidemic rise in star/super stars visits on the show, the attention on the performance of the participants has shifted to the stars. Our bollywood stars start to act on the script to praise all participants with equal intensity. In one such show, Rani Mukherjee had requested that there should not be any elimination of participants because it was first day of her released movie- Laga Chunari me Daag. She didn't want any sorrow and requested to all to watch her movie. She is so kind hearted. Do we need our bollywood stars to make these reality shows more exciting ? American Idol show doesn't need any big hollywood stars to promote itself. Then why do the copies of American Idol show need bunch of stars at the cost of the spirit of show ? Don't kill the spirit of the game. Permanent judges are more qualified and better than guest judges.

Last important thing about these shows is tear factor. Indian TV viewers are very emotional. More you shed crocodile tears, more you will get public sympathy in terms of SMS votes. And TRP of show also goes high. One such interesting incident happened during the elimination round of Bathroom Singer show. One good looking gal was eliminated due to less voting. All participants were shedding tears and crying. They were hugging her like they didn't want her to go from the show. Judges of the show were almost tearful. They were shocked to death. Few moments passed. Bappi da came on stage. When he started with his hit Disco item. Then all were dancing on disco tunes. WOW!!! What is the need to stage fake drama ?