Unreal life of Reality Shows and the real life beyond them

Success requires hard-work and persistence.  The reality shows on TV create a great platform for youngsters, but can these shows give them all glowing careers?  Apparently some have cashed but not all.  Everyone is on their own after the show and has to work hard.  The fame and fervour that these participants and winners see during the show with millions voting for them evaporates very quickly into thin air!  Then what?

One set of reality shows that I have watched and followed with great interest is the musical ones.  Fame Gurukul, Indian Idol, and the grand dad of them all Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.  These shows do it all to boost their TRP ratings through tricks like:

– fighting amongst the judges.. like Abhijeet and Bappi Lahiri; or Javed Akhtar and Annu Malik used to fight.  This apparently creates interest amongst the viewers.
– creating religious or national controversies – like Zee did in the Independence Day special with three Pakistani candidates in the danger zone for singing Pakistani national songs as opposed to Indian ones.  First of all, its just vanity and foolhardiness to want people of another nation (even though we are so close) to sing our national songs, specially on a day when its their Independence Day as well!
– create love triangles / love affairs – like Sumedha and Aneek Dhar – when nothing really is there.

After the show however all these gimmicks go away.  Then what?  At that time the person is left alone with his/her music and urge to excel.  The fact that you once got millions of sms votes does not give the bread on the table now.  So, its back to the fight and struggle to succeed.  It takes a lot of effort to succeed in the entertainment business.  And ultimately those who have talent remain there for a long time.  Just like in 1980’s we have the horrendous set of singers like Mohd. Aziz and Shabbir Kumar burst on the scene and make a mince-meat of the entire music in Indian cinema.  It took a person like Udit Narayan 8-9 years to break out in the open with QSQT.

So, what is life after the winning and losing of a reality show?

Qazi Touqeer, the charismatic Kashmiri from the Fame Gurukul is acting in a movie… and I think it is better for him as he had looks and style but very little singing talent.. Ruprekha Bannerjee, the other winner, has disappeared somewhere!  Rex meanwhile has gone international.  He is seen in different NRI functions and on cruises.

Debojit, the lucky winner of 2005 Saregamapa Challenge is still living in a rented apartment in Malwani Jankalyan Nagar and is waiting for Zee TV to find programs for him!  Imagine Udit Narayan trying to create his career based on this kind of waiting game or Sonu Nigam looking at Zee to give him the songs and programs!

Debojit Saha, the winner of ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005, is a sad man. He expressed, “Though Zee is supposed to fetch me programmes and shows, the bitter truth is that the offers for most of my shows have come directly to me and not through the channel. I am still living in a rented house at Malwani Jankalyan Nagar.” Qazi Touqeer and Ruprekha, the Fame Gurukul Jodi, is nowhere to be seen.

Also, I believe Karunya ultimately found South Indian movies to sing in.

These four boys from Indian Idol ’07 too have joined together to form a classy band – called F4 (Chang, Suhit, Abhishek, and Parleen).  They are coming out with this album through Sony/BMG.. and they did not even win the thing.  But they have used their brains and creativity to put together a killer proposition – a cool look band of some sensational boys!

I havent heard about the rest.  After a few songs, most have gone away.  But its not all vapour after all, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala are some of the top singers today and their careers were started in one of these music reality shows too.  But it took a lot more than just participation or winning these shows.  It took real talent.  Real talent – which does not wait on opportunities to come out.  It creates them, awards or no awards.  All you need to know about awards in music is that even Mozart never won even ONE!  Losing or winning really doesn’t give you a great career.  Ask any IIT graduate or a Harvard MBA.  After they come out of their halo-ed colleges.. the fight starts THEN.