Singer Arpita Mukherjee questions reality shows

Voted out of the music talent hunt show "Fame Gurukul" by the audience in the last round, singer Arpita Mukherjee said the audience vote is an ambiguous system and its authenticity is doubtful.

"Audience vote is an ambiguous system as most of the competitors who are not talented win music talent hunt reality shows," Arpita told IANS.

"Are viewers, who are voting, fools that they cannot differentiate between the talented and untalented singers?

"Channels claim that they receive a huge number of votes but nobody knows whether they really pour in or they quote the figures according to their convenience as it is not a transparent procedure," she added.

The budding talent, who was among the four finalists of the musical talent hunt show, said that reality shows are fabricated and "by means of clever editing they portray a false image" of the person on screen.

"Reality shows create unnecessary hype. They project a completely wrong image of a person. He and she may be completely opposite of what is shown on screen."

Arpita, who had also participated in the music talent hunt show "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Golden Voice", agreed that personal biases amongst the teachers and judges of talent hunt shows couldn't be ruled out.

"A person in an extremely prestigious position of a judge must be impartial and adjudicate only on musical ability of the participant. If the (current) trend continues, then these reality shows have a dim future," said Arpita, who has already anchored shows like "Fun Antakshari" on ETV Urdu and "Meri Baat" on Doordarshan.

Arpita had sung the title track of Samar Khan's film "Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye" and now she is ready to wow audiences with her debut album "Yeh Hai Chand". She has also lent her voice for two songs in Ashok Nanda's upcoming movie "Riwaaz".

Indo-Asian News Service