Reality singing show Indian Idol which is into its 10th season has always been a crowd puller. But this time it’s for all the wrong reasons.
Nishant Kaushik Blows The Whistle:
Recently, former Indian Idol aspirant Nishant Kaushik has found his spot on Twitter’s trending list after he spoke about his ill experience on the show.
He went on to reach the third round of auditions in the 2012 edition of the reality show and went into detail about the abuse contestants face, as well as the lack of planning on the part of Indian Idol crew.
Nishant Kaushik tweeted about how
“it is a perfect platform to destroy your dream as opposed to its common perception as a breeding ground for talent”
Brief, nonchalant thread about my auditioning experience at Indian Idol 2012 and why I think it is a perfect platform to destroy your dreams as opposed to its common perception as a breeding ground for talent.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
May. Mumbai. I rocked up at the venue more out of casual interest. On joining a queue 2 km long I noticed enthusiasts who had arrived there as though their lives depended on them. Some with their mothers holding Prasad, other rebels who had braved odds and traveled alone.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
I joined the queue at 7 AM. There were people who had arrived at 5 AM. Others who had camped overnight. False notion that early arrival = early audition. No one from the crew to dispel such notions. Gate opens 1 PM.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
Deprived Of Basic Necessities:
When the gates to the venue finally opened at 1 pm, no toilets, drinking water, and food stalls were to be seen at the venue.
In those long hours of waiting, no accessible toilets or food stalls or drinking water taps. If you step out in search, you risk losing the queue which you'd then have to rejoin. Anyway at 1 pm the long wait ended right? Wrong.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
At 1 PM we were herded toward a stage on the school ground where the previous year's winner Shriram was lip syncing to Desi Boyz. A volunteer amongst us was sought to go and grab Shriram's feet mid-performance and shout "I wanna be Indian Idol!" Reward promised : early audition.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
Nishant described ‘staged gimmicks’, where he gave the example of a blind person, and another who was ‘dragging his feet on a broken slipper’.
These contestants were picked based on their physical appearance and given scripted lines to speak in front of the camera.
Any grievances and enquires about the commencement of auditions were either not responded, or were met with vile abuses by the ‘vultures’ (the crew) as described by Nishant.
Sure enough, one aspirant fell to the bait. Fell at Shriram's feet. Dozens of retakes demanded by the director. When the aspirant said he couldn't do any more retakes, assistants on the set abused him and threatened to have him off the auditions if he didn't comply. He complied.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
During all this I met two interesting aspirants: one med rep from an Indian village I don't remember the name of, who dragged his right foot in a broken slipper. And another, who was blind in both eyes. And then I saw the crew make a merciless meal of both of these kind souls.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
First the vultures came with their mic and cameras to the blind man, who said he had a scene's role in The Slumdog Millionaire. They first asked him to give a little speech about the history and status of his blindness, how does it feel to be blind, and what have you.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
When none of his responses flew, they drafted a "response" on his behalf and read it out. Roughly, "I miss my mother and I wish she were here to see me, but I hope that when I sing tonight she can hear me up there." They made him repeat this even as his voice trembled.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
Contestant Dragged Out For Asking His Turn:
Some people were waiting for their turn for more than 24 hours now. Soon it was enough and one of the aspirants lost his cool and stood up, inquiring about where the auditions were happening and asked to see the judges.
In front of thousands, one of the crew member charged up to him and slapped him. A scuffle followed, with the contestant dragged on the floor and thrown out of the room by the crew.
Hours passed by. At around 8 PM, we were finally given badges and ushered in. no auditions yet. We were taken to the basketball court where for hours at stretch we were made to scream "We LOVE INDIAN IDOL!" right before our voices were supposedly going to be tested.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
At this point one of the aspirants lost his shit and stood up, demanding to see where the auditions were happening, to see the judges. One of the crew members charged up to him and slapped him. In front of thousands of people. SLAPPED.A.CONTESTANT. Yes this happened.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
A scuffle followed. Crew members rescued their colleague who was assaulted, by dragging the contestant along the floor and evicting him from the room. Late into the night, we finally arrived in a corridor that had a line of rooms hosting the auditions.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
Bad Contestants Were Selected For Mocking:
The crew then randomly started picking people and asked them to sing. After that, those who sang badly were again sent to perform in front of the judges, who in turn mocked them only to increase their TRP. The process even made one of the contestant cry.
(Take a moment to reflect that by the time of the first round of audition some of us had been standing at that venue for almost 24 hours). Crew walked past us, randomly picking some of us to sing a couple of lines. Just like that, in the corridor, with no judges present.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
The naive thought this was a smart way to quicken the filtering process of worthy contestants. The smartass crew knew better. They giggled at the contestants who sang horribly, and directed them to the only room that had a camera inside it. The rest of us got non-camera rooms.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
The med rep with that broken slipper I told you about sang atrociously. Through a half-open door of the room with the camera, I overheard his "auditioning". A painfully bad rendition of "Likhe jo khat tujhe", to which the judges kept going "wah wah! now try a higher pitch?"
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
That mockery went on. The judges relished that fellow's naivety, asking him to keep taking a pitch "higher and louder" till his voice turned into frail shrieks that sent them into peals of laughter. He came out in tears. Elsewhere in the corridor we heard of contestants fainting.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
Evicted from the third round of the contest, Nishant Kaushik was nearly relieved that it happened. In addition to the contestants, people hired to dismantle the sets at the venue were harassed by the crew members present there.
I crashed out in Round 3 of the auditions close to midnight, and was nearly relieved when it happened. But I went home satisfied that I got a taste of a show that on TV had always appeared alluring. Shocked as I was by its reality, I was a wiser man by the end of the day.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
Not to mention the labourers who were hired to install and then disassemble the equipment at the venue. I don't even have the heart to mention how we were witness to the abuses they were being subjected to by the present staff.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
Kaushik criticised the reality of the ‘reality show’ culture in India and summarised it perfectly.
My summarized observation of Indian Idol was that it decorates and recognizes maybe 10 or less, very worthy participants annually. But en route it quashes a million people's hearts by disrespecting them, ridiculing and abusing them, denying them a conducive atmosphere to contest.
— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018
Read the entire thread here.
Former Host Mini Mathur Responds:
When a Twitter user tagged Mini Mathur, who has hosted several seasons of the reality show she replied:
This sucks. Thanks for forwarding me this thread. I wasn’t part of the 2012 season but I know most of what he has articulated is known to happen on reality tv. One of the reasons I bowed out. This incessant need to create false emotion.
RIP Organic, pure TV.— Mini Mathur (@minimathur) August 22, 2018
Having read the replies, there seems to be a lot of ‘unreality’ in these reality shows. The filtration process that these shows follow is something completely mysterious.
All they are looking for is the ‘X’ factor or a sob background story to spice things up to get their TRP soaring high and it’s not singing well that matters nowadays.
In India, favoritism often makes people fall behind a lot. While researching, I read that sometimes the final list of contenders selected were people who never even appeared for the auditions. Obviously, priority is given to people the judges might know and that’s very problematic.
From the start of the auditions to the end of the finale, the long and arguably dehumanizing process seems to be corrupted with some of the other problems and it does not end at Indian Idol.
The question arises that how worthy these launch pads like Indian Idol are?
Where’s the season 1’s winner Abhijeet Sawant? He only featured in one music video ‘Lafzon Mein’ featuring Tamannah Bhatia. Tamannah is now a Baahubali star and I am sure you don’t even know who Sawant is.
I hope that the drama around Nishant’s tweets does not go to waste and makes the reality show industry to alter its process.
In any case, music lovers will fast forward through the drama and continue watching the show for some brilliant singing. But its time we think about the talent on board too.
Image Credits: Google Images
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