GOODBYE SOAP OPERAS, WELCOME REALITY SHOWS!

WHAT is a reality show? It takes a while to understand and even then one is left a little confused! The point is these reality shows are making short work of the soap operas of old and virtually replacing them on TV in the Western world, including Sweden where reality shows have become a way of life for participants and viewers alike. At a press conference held at “Drop Anchor” at Calangute Beach the conference itself became a part of the Goa Beach Bar reality show being shot by STRIX television AB of Sweden. The shooting team of about 50-60 odd professionals is larger than the competing team. Producing and directing the reality show is veteran Swedish journalist and reality show pioneer Robert Aschberg (he writes a widely read column in the Swedish eveninger Aftonbladet). Speaking to media people in Goa and introducing them to the idea of reality shows he said that they are a sure way of promoting holiday destinations like Goa. But of course that is not all there is to it. Their genre of reality shows have become  money spinners in the entertainment world and have created a new breed of celebrities “who’re all crazy!”

So one gets talking to one of the “crazy” participants at the venue.  Qristina Ribohn, one of the six women in the team of 12, says, “For me participating in a reality show is a like a holiday and I go back with my heart batteries recharged, I take back the warm happiness of all the sun  here…I become light-hearted!” It is a way of getting in touch with the reality of other people’s lives and perhaps understanding life in general better. Women in Sweden are on par with men and she sees herself as a strong and dominating woman! She has to be because she is a drug therapist back in Sweden where a lot of young folk are in trouble because of their drug addiction, “Yes, it is a big problem…I deal with young people from 16 to 23 years old who’re addicted to ganja or heroin…” Life, sighed Qristina, is a very serious business back home and it is nice to get away to a totally new place to do something which will inspire laughter and perspective, in this sense she always benefits by participating in a reality show. At the moment she is having problems with a self-centered and vain participant in the team, “He see the dirt and thinks everybody else is beneath his dignity to associate with…oh, I am going to put him in his place!” 

The participants are actually celebrities and household names back home in Sweden, but opined Qristina,  “Some of them begin to think they’re Hollywood stars and cannot handle the fame of being only reality show stars!” In Goa, shooting for this reality show, they are under the scrutiny of the camera team for most of the day when they’re doing their assignments and even if a fight or a difference of opinion breaks out it is recorded. The idea is for the two teams to make the running of the shack restaurant a success, that is the competition side of the reality show being shot and they have to abide by rules and do whatever they’re required to do within a given budget. It’s not all work, interjected another woman participant, Zubeyde Simsek. The lovely Zubeyde is of  Turkish origin but born and brought up in Sweden, about the show she says, “We have times when we’re not working and the camera is not following us, of course they may not film us when we’re sleeping!”

It is like this. The day before they had to prepare for an evening of entertainment at the shack and the two teams had to get table cloths, champagne…even a piano! So they hired cabs and went off to Mapusa to look for a piano…when you don’t know the language it can be problem but the problem has to be overcome. The team which got all the props on the list for the least amount of money notched up the most marks! And if anyone does something totally reckless or dangerous he or she is out – the team is one participant less. Reality shows are fundamentally survivor shows and the one who endures and survives the best takes away the prize money which may be something like Rs.Three million!

So basically a reality show is about winning money in a competition conducted at an exotic locale by the host team, in this case STRIX Television AB of Sweden. Zubeyde Simsek is a STRIX veteran having done several reality shows with them including two of the most famous i.e. the Survivor reality show. Here, she explained,  participants are dropped off on an uninhabited island in Malaysia and told to do just that…survive! And Zubeyde survived for 42 days in the reality show, “I was the last woman survivor!” So successful and popular have the Survivor reality shows become that now the company rents something like ten islands in Malaysia where the series is filmed. The Survivor reality shows are seen by millions of viewers the world over.

Interestingly, Zubeyde is a hairdresser back in Sweden, “My father migrated to Sweden back in the 60’s and I’m one of four children, two brothers and two sisters…we do go to Turkey for holidays where I have lots of relatives.” She decided to participate in this reality show in Goa because she has always been curious about India, “I never got the time to come here before, it seemed so far away…now I see that it is a very big country with millions and millions of people…and I am not afraid to see the poverty like some Westerners are and they have a nervous breakdown, they want to go back!” By way of protection against such things as malaria and dysentery all of them have taken as many as six shots and hopefully nobody will succumb to illness. Other than that she said she likes Goa, its beaches, its food, its weather…and in this regard she speaks for most of the Swedish team. Goa is an exotic destination for the Swedish and once this reality show is televised  many of them will think of coming for a holiday here, instead of going to Phuket where many Swedish holidaymakers had lost their life in the recent tsunami tragedy.

In conclusion, perhaps reality shows are soap operas with a difference – they’re more challenging, they  offer an educative and adventurous holiday to participants seeking catharsis for a bored or stressed-out soul! Plus, you’re on television. The STRIX team is going to be around in Goa till mid-March.

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