In February, 2006, when Debojit Saha landed in his hometown Silchar in southern Assam — which is remote even by Assam’s standards — fresh from winning the Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Voice of India talent hunt contest, he took nearly nine hours to travel the 24 km distance, as an approximately 50 lakh people turned up to see their hero. As Debojit jokingly says now, the crowd could have been bigger than the one that turned up to greet the Indian cricket team when it landed in Mumbai after winning the Twenty20 cricket World Cup.

For a region that legitimately accuses the rest of the country as not treating it as their own in more ways than one, it was a sense of pride that was reflected in the outpouring of emotional support to Debojit, another way of saying to the ‘mainstream’ India that ‘look, we are equal Indians and we have the talent to come to the top’.
The same kind of public euphoria was witnessed in Meghalaya when Amit Paul reached the finals of the Indian Idol 3 on Sony Entertainment Television a few weeks ago, and in the Darjeeling area when Prashant Tamang emerged winner in the contest.

Small town, big story
From a larger perspective, though, it is the story of small-town India that is telling the more privileged city-slicker cousins — even if at the cost of crores of rupees spent in sending SMS’ in support to the son-of-the-soil contestants — that they too have the talent and they too can aspire to realise their dreams.

And like the Indian cricket team, the reality talent hunt shows — whether they are really about hunting talents or are more about earning higher revenues by playing with mass and regional emotions is a matter of debate — are throwing up more and more social underdogs like Poonam Yadav of Lucknow, the daughter of a housemaid who finished fourth in the ongoing Sa Re Ga Ma Pa competition, with whom the underbelly of the society can instantly connect emotionally.

Definitely there is the angle of regionalism that is raising its head more clearly in recent times through these contests, with voting patterns defined by the contestant’s origins.

But be it the contestants themselves or the channels running the reality shows or media analysts, all are in agreement that it is not an unnatural thing to happen at all from the socio-political point of view.

As media expert Akhila Sivadas of Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) says, “I don’t think it is a negative sign. It is just part of the way television works. Reflection of local sentiments was there even in the past, but commercialisation makes even small things seem very big. I don’t think reflection of local sentiments is a negative thing at all. We need to get out of stereotyping that talents can come only from big cities.”

The violence that erupted in Siliguri and other parts of northern Bengal following a Red FM RJ’s insensitive comment about the Gurkha community while he was referring to Tamang’s win, is, in fact, a result of the failure of the urban society to rise above such stereotyped prejudices, she feels. “Technology has helped the media to reach the innermost corners of our country, but the human elements in the media are still working within these stereotype views. There are many sensibilities they have to think about,” she says.

Zee Network’s executive vice-president Ashish Kaul too agrees that regional sentiments come to the fore in talent hunts, and also agrees that the results of such shows could get skewed against a talented contestants. But at the same time, he emphasises that there are checks and balances deployed to see that non-talents do not get into the main competition.

“If we ask ourselves honestly, it has always been about regionalism in any kind of polls, whether it is political or SMS based. When someone is exercising his or her opinion, it will be done on the basis of emotions, and when it comes to a feeling of one’s own, it is only natural to happen. Whether in politics or in talent hunt, you vote for somebody you are mentally close to,” he says.

But the regionalism, he says, finally gets weaved into a national feeling as the finalists in shows like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa are chosen by a panel of eminent judges and it is only the top ten that are judged by SMS votes. “So, it is like choosing from amidst ten Rs 1,000 notes — whichever you select will have the equal and highest value,” he says, admitting, however, that any system of selection is open to criticism on one count or the other.

Emotions rule
Debojit, who benefited immensely because of the emotional upsurge in the North East following an apparent negative comment against him by judge Himesh Reshamiya, agrees that regional feelings do help a contestant, but it comes in only at the top ten level, to reach which a contestant has to have some level of talent.

“Remember, the initial selection is at a national level, done by experts and highly-respected names from the field.
“Voting starts only at the Top Ten level. Some people say voting system is not the right approach to find a real talent, but they forget about the initial selection process which is rigorous. People automatically get emotionally involved once the Top Ten stage starts, but that benefits not only the contestants but also the channels. Of course, only one can win, but whoever wins is initially selected by top musicians,” he says.

Concurs Kaul, “Channels should be responsible enough to say that a voting process would have its own limitations, and also the process must ensure that the real talent does not suffer. For example, in our show, specialists do the auditioning of the lakhs that come in initially, before judges get to listen to those shortlisted. Ultimately one person can win and he can be from anywhere, and we clearly understand that such shows and indeed television itself is dependant on viewers.”

But more importantly for small-town dreamers like Debojit or Prashant Tamang, these talent hunt shows are a staircase to heaven, literally. “Reality shows help small town people like me, Amit or Prashant achieve their dreams of not only coming to Mumbai but also getting a platform from where you can build your career if you have the talent and the luck,” says Debojit.

Agrees Kaul, “No system is beyond criticism, but what cannot be taken away is the fact that a show like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa has given a large number of highly-talented playback singers to Bollywood, be it Kunal Ganjawala, Shreya Ghoshal, music director Shekhar Ravjiani of the Vishal-Shekhar duo or Parthiv Gohil, who did not win the competition but now has sung for Ranbir Kapoor in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya.”

He points out that ultimately one has to be talented to be noticed by the film industry as a playback singer, but a platform like a talent hunt show plays a very important role in giving that first look in at talented but struggling youngsters.

Dreaming success
Debojit points out that wins like the one he achieved only further fuels people’s aspirations. “The North-East has immense musical talents in every nook and corner, but because of the distance factor, they cannot come out easily. Till now only Bhupen Hazarika and Zubeen Garg have really made a mark at a national level, but after my win, thousands like me are starting to believe that they can also try to realise their dreams,” he says, not forgetting to emphasise that it was only because of his win that he has been able to bring out a Hindi album, sing a few hit songs in an Assamese film, and host the Bengali version of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, apart from preparing for more albums in Hindi, Bengali and Assamese.

“I am still struggling, but at least now people in the industry give me appointments and talk to me. Earlier, I was struggling by travelling in buses and local trains, now I have my own car to do that,” the engineer, who chucked a government job to try his luck in Mumbai in 2002, says with a sense of irony. “I have achieved a lot in life because of the win,” he adds.

Sivadas too reflects this sentiment when she says, “This feeling that every part of India is surging with talent is very important. These shows have provided the people from regions long excluded from the mainstream to come into the mainstream, and that is a great thing.”

However, she has a suggestion to make to the industry to avoid the spectacle of real talent suffering at the cost of regional voting patterns, “I don’t find anything wrong with the polling system with all its limitations as it is on a medium like television. But maybe they could introduce a judges’ award, like film awards have a critics’ award, so that it does not become a do-or-die for the talented contestants and there is an opportunity to recognise the talent.”

Well, the debate continues…