Satyamev Jayate, truth alone prevails, and the prevalent truth is that one cannot negate the impact which this is show has had on the Indian populace. 'It came, it saw, it conquered' would be a decent adulation which this 'talk show' deserves, to say at least. The name, Aamir Khan, was enough to garner prodigious hype. The issues raised, the finesse with which the show was advanced, the knack with which Aamir Khan presented it, no corporeal or incorporeal entity could have acted as an encumbrance to its success. India has its own Oprah Winfrey now, and Amir khan it is!
Debate is rife on the impact this show has created. Be it newspapers, news channels or blogs, all have leveraged or exploited, your prerogative how you wish to call it, the sensation .
It elicited cry, critique, cringe and of
course crib! Apparently, many are not happy with the huge profits the makers of
the show have amassed, questions about the ethicality over so called
'exploiting' the misery of people have been brought up, after all the show very
much includes pretty garish figures. While Bharti Airtel, the title sponsor,
shed a hefty Rs 17-20 crore for the acquiring sponsor slot, associate sponsors
like Axis Bank, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Skoda and Reckitt Benckiser
have paid Rs 6-7 crore EACH for the 13-week show. Star has charged Rs 8-10 lakh
per 10 seconds for the spot rates.
Just after the first episode, a
racket was busted in Haryana. Rajasthan is in the process of making fast track
courts to deal with female foeticide. In MP 65 MTP licenses were suspended.
Maharashtra government is considering slapping murder charges on those involved
in the practice. Internet Searches for "female foeticide" (and
related terms) rose by 610% in the week the first episode got aired.
Within ten days after
the airing of the second episode, the Lok Sabha passed The Protection of
Children from Sexual Offences Bill to protect children who are victims of
sexual abuse.
After the episode on medical
malpractices, Karnataka government would be offering generic drugs with a 50%
subsidy on the MRP. Maharashtra
government has taken a decision to start selling generic medicines through all its hospitals. Rajasthan
government would be providing 200 generic drugs free of cost in all the state
run hospitals within the state, this would be benefiting approximately 44
million people, yes, the same people whose misery has been allegedly exploited.
Delving more into the
impact aspect, Alcoholic anonymous’s number was aired at 11.37 am and by 11.40
am the site had crashed, by evening 31000 calls had been registered. Muktangan
Rehabilitation Centre (MRS), donations. The NGO has decided to use the money on
street children addicted to various harmful substances. A misery exploited
indeed.
It is the power of
the concept, the flair of the team behind it, the empathy it conveys, the
sympathy it evokes and the guilt it imbues, it is the need that it satisfies for
which apparently people were craving for eons and that’s why it has amassed a staggering
viewership previously intrigued only by Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana. It freaking deserves
the money which the marketers are paying it. It is legitimate and scrupulous.
It is perhaps the best use of television since its invention.
Ethics is something which can never be absolute and it is circumstantial. The blunt truth is that many stories which have been covered in this show, the protagonists of them not even bother about the so called exploitation; things are so dejected, so hopeless for them. So, be it drama, be it immoral, be it unethical or be it exploitation, even if the show is able to motivate one individual to bring about change, the exploited society stands a gainer.
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constructive criticism, since you asked for it:
ReplyDeletedo you really believe that all state governments were waiting for Amir Khan to come up with all issues for them to take up the causes in their respective states??
That hundreds of crores of rupees worth schemes have been waiting for an Amir Khan's approval?
The show creators very cleverly found sponsors in governments wanting to create goodwill, so that every cause taken up already had a govt plan backing it.
And just because people searched for MTP online, are we concluding that it will lead to reduction in cases of female foeticide? How exactly are we going to find the regression equation if we presume a causal relationship between both?
So many questions, where are the answers?
Thank you nidhi for your response.
ReplyDeleteApparently, you are an MBA :)
The MTP was indeed a fad, and has subsided to normality by now, agreed. But the show indeed triggered a short impulse. I would say its similar to campaigns against smoking, campaigns for safe sex, campaign against polio. All these campaigns attained success, because once the discussions started, efforts were made to make them ubiquitous and to sustain the transfer of the message. We need to start discussing about these things, the plaque which is gorging in our society. Millions of families watched the series, don't you think that at least for few days or hours the impact of the show would have been there, profound on their minds, some of them even might have discussed about it in their social circles.
The show has started the discussion, now it is to be thought on how to sustain this discussion. Hope I am able to convey my rationale. The frequency has to be increased!
About the government, if the government was waiting for the show to break the inertia, then I think its the government's fault not the show's. Anyway, at least they did something is laudatory for the usual standards.
And if the government was actually involved with the show, I must add that I am neither denying that nor accepting that, then I would say, " Bravo! brilliant marketing execution!"
I don't perceive any thing wrong in the show being backed up by the government until it is making the life of the impoverished better. I don't believe in the theory of best, there is always the optimum. This is the way things are, perceived value and an exchange commensurate to that. Actually, I should not even blame them, being an individual who has never even cast his vote. I am very sure that concepts similar to SMJ would now flood the idiot box, as it happened with the saas bahooos, the comedy movies, and the reality shows.
I am not looking for any answers. The show made money,I am OK with it, but at least it inspired few girls, it made few kids question the disgusting reality to their parents,It enticed few moments of cognition. Considering the opportunity cost, what else could have aired at the television at that time? what else could people have done at that time?
The article and the comments both share the insights of Big shows and events. SATYAMEV JAYATE no doubt made money, but this was collected from the corporates and not from the viewers unlike KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI and other such shows. The show created Awareness amongst children and adults, raised questions and made a few responsible Politicians answer it as well.
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