PUNJABI ANTENNA

ROOTS

A flexible format and absence of a script or time-consuming rehearsals have made TV reality shows the stock-in-trade of production houses. Amar Nath Wadehra and Randeep Wadehra look at how participants, especially children, are becoming victims of these programmes

THOSE were comparatively sedate, single-channel days with occasional ripples in the pond-sized Indian mediascape, like introducing colour television on the Delhi Asian Games eve, and adding a channel for regional telecasts, which kept us enthralled. Frankly, Doordarshan’s monopoly did not irk most of us since we were blissfully unaware of the pleasures of channel surfing.

Victims of vote