MTV Roadies 7 |
I’ve just got off the phone with a reporter from India news – Shivangi Sahani – a sweet girl who wanted my quote on the ongoing Splitsvilla saga. I then received another call from Puneet, from the same channel, who wanted “my point of view” at 8pm for 5 mins.
Could I do a phone-in?
I asked him whether in the past, during phone-ins with other guests, the conversations had been edited so that just the juicy bits were aired and the boring bits were not.
He said, yes – this had happened in the past.
You see, the truth is boring. The truth doesn’t give you TRPs. Fantasy is so much more entertaining (not to mention, financially lucrative too).
When I said this to Puneet, he had very little to say. He (and his bosses) are very well aware what sells and what doesn’t. I guess being told point blank by me, that India news had everything to gain – and I had nothing, left him very little room to maneuver.
So I declined to do the phone-in, as I refuse to become another clown in this circus that the media companies are running. I instead intend to write my opinion here and express my point of view to people who matter, rather than the multitude that give these channels their ratings.
Before we take this one step at a time, one allegation at a time, lets just clearly understand that the basis for Swagata’s allegations are supposedly things she heard from Joanna. Why she has chosen to take Joanna’s words for gospel, I can’t understand – especially since she says Joanna’s a liar, a slut and a prostitute. I find Swagata’s comments disgusting and unfit for human consumption at any level in society.
Next, before we get into the allegations, I question motive. Every action has a motive. We know what the media’s motives are, but what are Swagata’s, Nalini’s and Varun’s?
Could their motive be “the truth”? Hmm… I wonder… truth, four months after the shoot finished and over a month since the final episode aired. “Truth” sought by a man who failed to tell MTV he was going through a divorce when he took part in Splitsvilla (I met his divorce lawyer at a hotel who told me his client was taking part in the show). It was too late by then to remove him from the show since most of it had been shot already.
Or maybe, a month after the show is over… some people have realised that the earth hasn’t paused for breath, the heaven’s aren’t heaving with the adulation of fans anymore, but life… theirs and the rest of the world’s, has just gone back to being whatever it was.
Boring.
That, in my opinion – is a far more powerful motive than the truth, at least as far as present company is concerned.