Web gets real

According to Anuj Poddar,senior V-P,Digital Media,the web version “which attracts nearly 10,000 users,has proved equally successful”.

Three years ago when reality shows changed the face of Indian television programming,it was not the viewers’ voyeuristic traits that did the trick but the chance that shows like Indian Idol or Sa Re Ga Ma Pa offered the common man to make it big. As Abhijeet Sawant and Raja Hasan became household names,they offered hope to the millions watching. But with rising quality benchmarks,the new wave of aspiring celebrities that find television a limiting platform have now discovered the Internet as a new channel.

While Roadies has already created a brand for itself,one may wonder how portals like ibibo.com or desitara.com,which host talent hunts in a range of fields,like fashion modelling,photography,choreography and so on,attract users. Vikas Bahl,who was till recently heading the marketing division for ibibo.com,states that most of their audience comes from small towns like Jabalpur or Gorakhpur where the users don’t have any alternative platforms to display their talents. “Our best contestants for the fashion photography section came from Udaipur and Agra. Usually,if one member from a city gets popular online,that city suddenly gets active. So when Trupti Patel,a girl from Ahmedabad,won the modeling contest and started getting assignments from local advertisers,ibibo saw a surge in the number of participants from Ahmedabad across contests.”

But Mander Natekar of Bigadda.com,which is now hosting a competition Yamaha India Bike Rally- Bharat Ki Khoj,says that metropolitan users are equally interested in online reality competitions. “Our show has shortlisted 20 participants through auditions for the bike rally that will take them across 27 states over 21 days. The participants will share their experiences through our portal. When we first planned this venture,we didn’t expect many women to participate since 21 days with a stranger may not appeal to everyone. But we got a 50 per cent response from women,many were professionals from metros who were willing to take a break from work to explore the country,” he explains.

While websites like filmakar.com,that host short filmmaking competitions have been successfully running for nearly three years,one wonders if shows like Bigg Boss will go online too. But Bahl says that two factors work for online reality shows: Youth are the primary users of both the Internet as well as such competitions and that it attracts those who don’t care for the histrionics of the television versions but come purely for the thrill of competing. “After watching reality shows on television,many get the impression that they are biased or doctored and that they may not stand a chance at that level. But web allows anyone and everyone to participate and the results are for everyone to see.”

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