Mar

17

Sony TV fooling Kishore Kumar fans?

March 17, 2008 posted by indiatime |

Amit Paul, the Indian Idol runner-up who generated some news coverage for making it to the finals in spite of a few absences on the ‘K for Kishore’ musical contest, is supposed to have opted out of the contest for reasons of ill-health. Most viewers believe that Amit Paul is nursing himself back to good health, recovering from severe throat infection or something. Several of my friends sympathized with the budding singer, telling me how Amit Paul could easily have won this reality show beating the likes of Nayan and Arnab who seem to be dominating the show with their Kishore-Kumar imitations.

Imagine my surprize when, last weekend, I was invited by a few friends to an Amit Paul concert, not on some TV set in Bollywood, but on the North Carolina fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina. Amit Paul, my friends, has been making a US tour this month, and if you believed Sony TV when they told you about his absence from the reality show contest, then I have some piece of land to sell you.

This is very, very offending and insulting to the viewers. First of all, Channels like Zee and Sony drag their viewers into this participating in such reality shows, telling them that they can vote in a winner of their choice. Fine. Then, as the contest progresses, we see the judges and the producers changing and bending rules to their liking, pushing one contestant up, knocking another one down. I know viewers who have gotten into these things so much that they have had fistfights within their families about whether to vote for this contestant or the other.

Gullible viewers that we are, we tend to take these big media channels for their word, when they tell us something. So imagine my surprize when the same time Sony is showing Amit Paul coughing and puking, here he is on the east coast of the United States, making a few dollars for himself and a lot more for his wealthy sponsors, who I assume have paid Sony a large portion of it.

I am not naive and I am not stupid not to know that this is entertainment TV and these things happen. Yeah, why get riled up about something so stupid, right? And I am not upset with Mr. Paul either, because I’m sure he is doing this purely out of some contractual obligations, and I would probably do the same if I were in his place.

But Sony has me riled up because they are making big bucks using the name of Kishore Kumar, a singer I have admired and respected all my life. Kishore Kumar never stood for lies and hypocrisy and he even challenged India’s government and got himself banned on the Indian airwaves, never wavering from saying the truth. Sony can lie about its Indian Idols and Sony can lie about other stupid reality shows, but not in the name of Kishore Kumar.


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2 Comments so far

  1. V. Manohar on March 18, 2008 6:21 pm

    25th Episode on Super Star Rajesh Khanna was greatest show on earth.

    There are romantic leading men and there are romantic leading men, but very few have taken cinematic love to legendary heights. While there might be other icons but Super-Star- Actor Rajesh Khanna after four decades, he is the ultimate true romantic legend.

  2. Anis A. Hashem on December 2, 2008 11:44 pm

    I am the fan of Late Singer Kishore Kumar and I belive no one can compare his voice with other singers.

    My love to family of Great Singer Kishore Kumar

    Regards,
    Anis A. Hashem
    Aden - Yemen

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