Click to play videoAfter much drama, some chicken curry and a raging debate on racism, actress Shilpa Shetty has emerged a bigger celebrity from UK reality show Big Brother, than she was when it started three weeks ago.
She has now got a famous publicist, has signed the rights of her story to British tabloid The Sun and if she plays her cards right, lucrative deals will come pouring in. Though all this might mean the world to Shilpa, how relevant is it to us?
That was the debate on the show Face The Nation on Monday, with experts discussing whether Shilpa Shetty's Big Brother win had brought Page 3 to Page 1. The show was conducted by Anuradha SenGupta and on the panel were Editor of DNA Gautam Adhikari, Chief Executive Officer of Future Brands Santosh Desai and actor Rahul Roy who won the Indian version of the Endemol reality show, Big Boss, last weekend.
Considering the cynicism that seeps in when a star is part of a show like Big Brother, what makes a star take on such shows?
“The reason why I joined Big Boss was because I have been reclusive person. I wanted to test myself and see whether I could in an environment with 12 different people. I didn’t go into the house thinking of what I would be put through. In the beginning, it was just a professional assignment for me,” said Rahul Roy.
So as an actor who has been out of the public arena for some time, the show represented a test for him/her, a way to earn money and to get media space.
From the media’s point of view, the story on Shilpa winning Big Brother would probably feature on the front page of Indian newspapers.
“Yes, it probably will be on the front page tomorrow. Television does drive this to a great extent. We, newspapers, face a lot of competition from other newspapers and we try to outguess each other. But that does not mean that the whole of Page 1 has become Page 3,” said Gautam Adhikari.
So is it just competition that has made Shilpa Shetty big news and not the fact that the controversy surrounding her has captured popular imagination?
“Of course, if people watch you, people want that. But the point is that a newspaper can give a lot more but we have to take a look at what you (television) are putting out. We don’t follow television but we have to take a look at the leading stories on it,” said Adhikari.
The controversy, a marketing gimmick?
A statement that the Channel 4 producer made was that they thought that the Celebrity Big Brother show with Shilpa Shetty was in danger. “In danger of being the most boring Big Brother that we had had in many years, we were thinking, ‘Oh dear, what can we do?’,” the statement said.
Is the media, along with the public and the governments have played into the hands of a marketing gimmick even if it’s unpremeditated?
“I would be surprised if that was the case. I don’t think it was an isolated event so I think it’s part of something much larger. Now that media has become a business, from having an allegiance to the idea of news, it now has allegiance to a much narrower constituency which is it’s own viewer or reader. So I don’t think you can blame it on marketing,” said Santosh Desai.
Playing a ‘role’ on the show
When celebrities walk into the house where they are supposed to stay for certain period under 24-hour surveillance, cut off all contact with the outside world, what exactly are they told before they get into the routine of things?
“I was told a simple line, ‘Get in and have a party’. I walked into the house and discovered that it is not a party. It is very difficult to stay there. You have no idea of what’s being shown, no clue of what people are thinking and how many eyeballs are watching you. There were a few people who were wondering what TRP rating were. We had no contact with the production team or anyone else apart from the housemates,” said Rahul Roy.
But when Big Boss ended on Saturday, Rakhi Sawant said that now that the show is over, everyone was acting different with her and when she asked them why, they said ‘We were just performing inside the house’. So it is a ‘role’ that one takes on, on the show.
“With all due respect, I don’t think Rakhi or the others were articulate enough in saying that they were ‘performing’ on the show because when they were inside the house, they had no control over their emotions. It is a true picture,” said Rahul Roy.
Role of media
There is an interesting point that some people are making and even if the controversy brought out the issue of race in a reality TV show in a petty atmosphere, it is actually a serious issue which is why it is being dealt with and discussed by society. Should the media then, stop beating ourselves over our head about whether or not to highlight these, given the settings?
“I would sympathize with that view because this is a product of our times. There was a time when media used to report every detail of a minister. Now perhaps they would do so if a more popular person was in question. So if racism comes out of drawing rooms to the streets and is discussed, it is democracy at work in a way,” said Santosh Desai.
British tabloids are making Shilpa’s win as a win against racism. Should the Indian media see it like that as well?
“I don’t know if the Indian media should see it in a particular way. We should just report it the way it happens. But in this case, it’s a case of public interest in the private. Big Brother was invented in Germany and it was the mother of all reality shows. From then on many other reality shows came up. It was all about making private public,” said Adhikari.
When Anuradha SenGupta asked him if he thought the controversy had helped bring issues of the South-Asian Diaspora to the fore, Adhikari said that he thought bringing in the racism bit the way it was, was a just a gimmick. Shilpa has come out on top with film deals so I think racism was used in a very commercial marketing way.
After the ‘show’-down
It has been heard that many participants have come out of such shows and had post-traumatic disorder. “When you walk in through those doors into that house, you are left completely isolated. You are with complete strangers and you don’t know when it will be attacked. Keeping the financial gains from the show aside, it was worth it. I could test myself,” said Rahul Roy.
Is Page 3, Page 1?
“Yes, Page 3 is becoming Page 1. Going by the traditional definition of Page 3 and Page 1, the convention is changing,” said Santosh Desai.
Adhikari agreed with Desai’s point that the concept of Page 1 was changing. “If you try to bring out the kind of paper that was out 25 years ago, you’ll be a flop in the market. So you have to adjust to reality,” he added.
Final results of the SMS poll:
Is Page 3 is becoming Page 1?
Yes: 65 per cent
No: 35 per cent
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