Roadies - 8

People watch reality television because of the Peeping Tom Syndrome.These shows provide a platform for 15 minutes of fame and notice. But several youngsters misconstrue this as the shortcut to popularity and a benchmark of success. MTV’s Roadies is an example of how the youth is thinking these days. Baffling as it is, all 18-25 year olds on these auditions now want to be models and Roadies. It is as if they acknowledge, ‘ We are stupid. We will go to gym, build physique and walk on ramp and open our mouth for spewing obscenities– We get famous – bingo!! ’

I am not a regular viewer of Roadies, but I do enjoy the auditions-purely for entertainment. It’s pure guilty pleasure. After the auditions, I do not care a whit as to who is in or out of Roadies .And where the heck they are put in. Hell or further down under. Truth be told, these are casting episodes of show rather than auditions- but it works and not for nothing is it the longest running reality show on Indian television.

No doubt judges on panel, are manipulative and try to wrest the upper hand and humiliate the participants. It is done intentionaly to make people uncomfortable .To separate the chaff from the wheat. But some of them are roasted and humiliated ever so deservingly. That later on they are cast on the very show, is however a liability and function of the format that feeds on creating tension by behaviour that is psychotic.

And the universal rule of reality TV holds true - that you can’t keep those without self respect down for too long.

And I will tell you exactly why people watch Roadies. Because as a guilt trip, those auditions are a treat to watch as we watch with voyeuristic glee at the deserved humiliation handed out on national television. Watching people confidently being so wrong in their priorities in life that you think you are in control sitting in front of a computer and logging on to youtube during work hours.

We love to bitch, love to hate, watch people sweat it out and empty their shallow souls in the hope of the short-lived fame it can bring it. But there is a lesson in this too. How many even after winning Roadies got a steady contract with MTV? Very few. And who is the most successful VJ on MTV right now? José. And José made his way working up from radio industry. Reality TV is a fickle.

Anyhoo, we watch on with crab mentality because some guys/girls richly deserve such a dressing down. More than anything else it’s fun to watch how wrong can people be about basic general knowledge. Confidently identifying that the current president is a man, getting state capitals wrong, not knowing what Ayodha is, trying to overcompensate for diffidence by wannabe dressing styles. How ashamed their respective schools would be to be their Alma maters. Maybe the Raghu/Rajiv put it correctly by saying that to straighten this generation; we need to close down all the call centres and gyms in first place.

I hope these people are not produced on a conveyor belt in India somewhere; else with such stupidity, god bless India!