Repercussion of Prematurely Solved Mystery of Roadies: Publicity Stunt or Leakage?

A few days earlier a website reported that Sufi Malhotra had won MTV Roadies 6.0 – Hell Down Under that is completed in India and Australia. The website also stated that Sufi, after voted out in first vote out, came back in Australia and won the coveted TV show, which is also India’s first reality show. However, till today i.e. March 12th 2009, only Sufi’s comeback episode was shown in the small screen. Till date, there are seven more contestants waiting to lay their hands on the winner title. Therefore, how can one claim that Sufi is the winner?

One argument is that many of the shows, like Roadies, are shoot way in advance as in these programs, public do not have to vote like other reality shows like Indian Idol or Nach Balliye. Contenders are eradicated by the participators’ votes itself. Thus, the Roadies schedule allows loopholes that can be used by miscreants, who in order to garner some quick money, can reveal some crucial detail of the show. However, such kind of misdeeds can be a strong reason for the evaporation of certain followers’ interest in the program as they will now know that their favorite contestant will not win it and someone they hate from the first day may well be the king of their beloved show. These sorts of news also seem to eradicate the whole mystery content of the program as you now know what will happen. At least you can now guess. However before that, although one could guess, but one always had a slim doubt in his/her mind about one factor – the famous entries of Raghu, the producer of Roadies and his ‘game reversing’ strategies and tactics. That is the charm of Roadies which will be missing now if those reports are true that Sufi already won the sixth version of Roadies – Hell Down Under.

However, on the other hand, this can be a publicity stunt also as the news has the potential to generate more interest in the show and create a controversy. If you craft a hullabaloo, it keeps in publics’ mind for few days, but in those few days also, one can generate leaps and bound curiosity and fame about oneself that can change many fortunes. It is a well known fact now in India that ‘whatever shows more does sell’. Many of the entertainment celebrities, now days, fashion controversy in order to stay in the minds of their audiences. Thus by this revelation, Roadies can generate more popularity. At the same time, you throw some confusion with the news and that will be a perfect recipe for the success of the show as then public will be perplexed, puzzled and more importantly, will be more than ever attracted to the show. As the audience will be more concerned with the appropriateness of the news, they themselves will want to find it out by themselves only – by watching the show. That can also lead to soaring of the TRP ratings.

This may well be a result of leakage also. However, if leakage happened and if some miscreants are responsible for it, it can be of a serious concern as the news have enough material to destroy the certain quarters’ public interest of the show and that should not happen. Thus, there should be standard law to deal with such kind of incidents or crimes, if one can name it so. More and more concern should be given to the copyrights issue as in Indian entertainment industry; this subject is not given so much importance what is given in developed countries like US or UK, though the awareness is on the rise.