Edition #1-THE GREAT INDIAN TRP WAR

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.
-Ann Landers

Considering today’s television scenario we know that truer words were never spoken, for most, if not all the programmes dished out on television with great fervor in the name of entertainment are mindless, to say the least. As soon as one switches on the television, an unending and untamed tornado of tears, screams and abuses are unleashed on the hapless viewer. And if the poor viewer happens to be a novice, it takes a few moments for him to collect his bearings and flip to the next channel where he is met with a similar tide of senselessness. For the uninitiated, welcome to the virtual world of weeping personalities and vicious vamps, of vote-appealing contestants and cruel judges, of news- makers and news-breakers – all co-conspirators and at times even unwitting players in the feverish game that has gripped Indian television – the game for high TRPs.

Leading the TRP bandwagon is the TV soaps. They leave no stone unturned and no genre unexplored in their attempt to garner attention. So, you have emotion (weeping wailing women in designer sarees), drama ( vamps in loud make-up, rolling their eyes at the camera and contorting their facial muscles at various angles to portray their vengeance.), crime (vamps plotting to kill the heroine.), suspicion (The heroine wonders – who could be my fourth husband’s n’th girlfriend?), suspense (eerie background music.) all rolled into one endless saga. In the course of time, all soaps begin to appear as each others clones, as if manufactured by a common soap factory (sheer coincidence!, claim the scriptwriters). New characters are regularly added or bumped off to get high TRPs. And while all the poor scientists of the world are scratching their heads trying to find the perfect formula for anti-ageing and immortality, the TV guys seemed to have figured it all out. Not only do actors produce a extended progeny of grandchildren and great-grandchildren while managing to look young all the time, the dead are also resurrected from time-to-time and given a new lease of life.

Well, if you thought that’s fiction, you need a reality-check by watching a few reality shows. Ideally meant to be a platform to showcase young talents, they end being the centre-stage for bickering and abuse-hurling judges, staged walkouts, scripted controversies and above all sobbing contestants who declare their poor financial status in return for a few sympathetic gasps from the audience and a few crumbs of votes thrown their way. Melodrama dominates these shows big time, which over time seemed to have lost focus and strayed.

And if you happen to survive unscathed through this entire assault, there’s more waiting. No mention of television is complete without a mention of news channels. These channels seem to have taken it upon themselves to bombard you with news – meaningful or meaningless 24 X 7. The easiest way to grab eyeballs for them is by flashing “BREAKING NEWS” every 10 minutes on the screen – whether it is to inform you of the sad demise of a so-called celebrity’s pet or the break-up of a high- profile couple. The reporters blatantly intrude personal spaces of people, sensationalize trivial pieces of information and telecast gory and graphic details of human tragedy, all in the name of authenticity.

And so, as more channels join the fray, the battles lines are drawn and the great Indian TRP war continues. One can only hope that in the times to come, some creativity, originality and above all some better sense prevails over the scriptwriters and creative-heads and they telecast content worth viewing by raising issues worth hearing and making programs worth watching.

- Divya Krishnan Third Year IT