15 MINUTES OF FAME

In 1968 Andy Warhol said “In future every body will be world famous for 15 minutes”.



I don’t like starting the blog with a “saying” but this one I feel has had the maximum impact and relativity. In 2010 I look at the last decade on television and can recall at least 10 people whom I have personally known to have appeared on TV for some or the other reason. Suddenly there is a wave of people on television. R K Narayanan’s humble common man has jumped out of news papers and is all over the satellite television space.



So we see exclusive only on your channel reports, almost all the reality shows shamelessly copied from US, UK, and various other countries by a channel and then shamelessly copied by other channels by tweaking the format a little. Gone are the days when 11.30 Doordarshan snubbed you by a one liner “next transmission at 5.30 am” and followed it up with a loud shrill forcing you to shut the idiot box. The explosion of cable television coupled with the buying power of the common man has changed the equation. But the point in discussion is not this.



All of a sudden rags to riches stories are everywhere or so we are made to believe. The stories once related to people running away from homes to become movie stars have taken a u-turn; we now have parents training their kids to participate and win in numerous television reality shows to get instant fame, and more important moolah.So there are shows for kids, teenagers, adults, and even older folk, so we have shows right from parenting, cooking, dancing, riding, dating, modeling, singing, stand-up comedies, to even marriage. Its become rather difficult to criticize the loud shrills of your neighbour anymore since you never know the same can become voice of India/ state/district/ colony, apartment, floor and what not and trigger a war of words between the est music directors/singers of India. But the point I want to discuss is not even this.



The point I want to discuss here is what happens to these instant heros after the dust settles, I have personally made an attempt to track one of the contestants journey before the show( since I know her personally) to stardom followed by the decline; the chances of going into oblivion and then reaching a plateau where she could have been easily without having to go through all this. For the respect I have towards her family lets not reveal her name and instead call her Ms Wannabe. Now Wannabe was an average looking girl next door in school, average looking in the sense that we certainly never felt she was Barbie doll as she was nick named later by some very known personalities. Anyways so Ms Wannabe was a regular singer at the school shows rendering some famous songs on the stage and her claim to fame was a few smitten guys who whistled from the back rows or wrote love letters to her on pink papers. A local theatre group approached Ms Wannabe to sing their songs during the various plays done by them which was refused by Ms Wannabe as below her standards and family values.

The moment Wannabe was 18 years old the parents promptly decided that their daughter had it in her to fill the vaccum created by the retirement of Lata Mangeshkar, this was the time every channel worth their salt was contemplating a musical reality show, so started the visits to various auditions for Ms Wannabe, so getting a chance here is almost guaranteed if you have been rejected by a rival channel, So Ms Wannabe got through as one of the contestants for the show. The mentor provided to Ms Wannabe was a famous music director known for his gold ornaments more than his music; So several tears jerking TRPs and public spats between judges and the repeated profiling by some B-grade Hindi channels our Ms Wannabe was nick named ‘Britney spears’ ‘Barbie Doll’ and many more.

Now what is the best way of making people watch your show? The answer is simple we love rags to riches stories so the channel made elaborate arrangements for Ms Wannabe to visit her home town, the roads were lined by people thronging to get a glimpse, suddenly the teachers who used to chide her for her absence started giving the “I knew she would be a big star” interviews. The back row whistling romeos graduated to doing homa’s and puja’s for Ms Wannabe’s success but alas………the channel bosses found another guy who can generate more TRP’s than Ms Wannabe, so Miss Wannabe was dropped as a hot potato out of the contest. The world came crashing down for Ms Wannabe and after half an hour of crying on stage and consolation from judges who promised her work in their next movies Ms Wannabe started the difficult journey back embarrassed about facing the people more than her loss. People welcomed Ms Wannabe with both arms, she was felicitated by almost every citizen of the city all under one assumption that the judges have promised her movies. She was the only topic in schools, colleges, tea-shops, bus-stops, office gossips anywhere and every where for almost 6- months, people used to mob her where ever she went and she already had those big black celebrity glasses to ward off prying eyes. But slowly the discussions died out and so did Ms Wannabe’s popularity, now the time came when Ms Wannabe had to work to put food on the table, having missed her most important years chasing dreams doled out by cable tv Ms Wannabe had little choice in terms of a career. So after trying to get an opportunity in some other reality show or regional channel shows Ms Wannabe had no other go but to join a lowly orchestra group which performs in marriages and during ganesh festival and other public functions. It was a mutual beneficial relationship where the orchestra ensured the food on the table for Ms Wannabe and Ms Wannabe provided the much needed ‘was once a star’ brand equity to it. It saddens me to see the same Ms Wannae who said no to a well known theatre group because she thought it was below her standards was suddenly forced to sing in marriages and small club shows.

I don’t want to dwell into what did you learn from this post kind of mode, neither was my intention to tell a sad story to my readers. My point is much bigger than all this its about what happens to a regular guy who is instantly exposed to stardom and then next moment thrown into oblivion. Luckily with Ms Wannabe due to the family support she had she didn’t go down the dark alleys of drugs, sex and suicide like hundreds like her do when thrown into oblivion. All I want my readers to do is read and just for a second think if its worth all the drama and retribution that one has to go through when you know its not going to last.Just sit back and see millions of Indians crossing all limits to come on camera. Everybody might not be famous for 15 minutes but a few would be and the race to get there makes some interesting food for thought.