Why Is Bigg Boss Considered Newsworthy?

In case you’re not in the know, Bigg Boss 10 is a reality show with commoners and celebrities, hosted by actor and acquitted murder accused Salman Khan. Sounds like a winner of a programme, doesn’t it?

While we’ve all grown to wrinkle our noses at it, what none of us expected was that journalism would come to play such a key role in the reality show. Not only has Bigg Boss metaphorically taken a piss on the media, it seems the media has paid the favour forward and taken a piss on us, its readers and viewers who may not want to have anything to do with Bigg Boss or its inmates.   

The tone for season 10 of the show was set when the first contestant, 59-year-old Swami Omji Maharaj came on stage during the opening episode. Omji is a “sanyasi” and was a part of the Hindu Mahasabha. He repeatedly slapped a female panellist and astrologer, Deepa Sharma, on a news debate about Radhe Maa on IBN 7. Deepa Sharma started it: she slapped Omji Maharaj, who then walloped her back. So just to be clear, IBN 7 invited a self-proclaimed god man to comment on a self-proclaimed god woman. Why would you give such people a platform or recognition? For the same reason that Colors TV telecasts Bigg Boss.   

This was followed by full-scale debates on news channels such as ABP News and News 24 on the slap.

One would think that Omji would be blacklisted by people in general and channels in particular. But Endemol Shine, the production house which makes Bigg Boss, decided that they’d show us just how low they could go, and invited him as a participant on the show. Omji has since appearing on the show spoken lewdly to women contestants, commented on their clothes, physically attacked others and indulged in random thefts of products including feminine washes such as Clean & Dry.

During a task on the show when he did not want to move from the spot he was standing in in the kitchen, Omji urinated into a mug in front of the other contestants. This was reported in full seriousness by newspapers like DNA.

Omji’s piss-connection re-emerged last night, when he collected his pee in an urn and sprinkled it on two contestants because he wanted to win a task. How do we know this? Because mainstream media, no less than The Indian Express wrote a detailed report at 10.26am on the morning of the episode narrating this earthshattering news:

To quote from the article:

“Controversial television reality show, Bigg Boss 10, has touched an all time low, courtesy Swami Om. The self-proclaimed godman has not only irked the contestants and the star host Salman Khan but also the ardent followers of the show. Just when we thought that nothing could be worse than him peeing on national television, here is another disgusting act that might leave many television sets turned off tonight. Swami Om peed on his fellow contestants Bani J and Rohan Mehra.

But this time Bigg Boss will not ignore his dirty antics. He will be shown the exit gate and will be thrown out of the house for his ugly act. A source from the channel, Colors confirmed, “Swami has been thrown out of the Bigg Boss house for his disgusting act. All the contestants were quite upset and Rohan and Bani couldn’t control themselves because of his pathetic behaviour. But they calmed down after some time.

It so happens that Bigg Boss announces the captaincy task wherein Bani and Swami have to make a pyramid with the given blocks. The other contestants have the liberty to support their candidate for captaincy and try to topple the blocks of the opponent. The entire house decides to support Bani for captaincy and throw balls at Swami’s blocks. Seeing the entire house turned against him, Swami stoops down to peeing on Bani and Rohan to keep himself in the game. Both Bani and Rohan were taken aback by Swami’S act and Bani retaliates by kicking Swami. Rohan too could not control his anger and pulls Swami to the jail.”

Keep in mind, that this comprehensive report appeared not on Zoom TV or Firstpost (which is obliged to carry descriptions of each episode being aired on Colors TV, since it is part of the same network). This was in a mainline newspaper known for its journalism awards. True to the tenets of journalism, this report was not one-sided. It even has quotes from sources – but sadly, not from Omji. This acme of journalism was replicated in Daily O and in DNA in as great detail and with as much gravitas as they would report an earthquake.

It’s bad enough that a reality show as puerile as Bigg Boss is one of the most popular shows on television. That the vile behaviour of its contestants is being reported in mainline news, is worse – but, not shocking. After all, an editor from ABP News, Dibang, starts each episode of Bigg Boss 10 every day with “Breaking News” from the Bigg Boss house, while standing in the ABP studio.

My expectations from reality TV shows is minimal if not nil. But that mainline news doesn’t realise that they’re making heroes of these self-proclaimed godmen such as Omji and their ilk on panel discussions and then writing reams on them and their behaviour, is what is surprising.  Instead of sotto voce reporting on the antics in a reality show, one would think that mainline news would call out the fact that people like Omji should never be given or paid to appear on a public platform. But that may be expecting way too much.

Instead, IBN 7 even had a show called Omji “Thappad Wale” as a precursor to the season which commented on how him slapping a woman qualified him for being on the show. Which speaks wonders for IBN 7’s analysis of what to promote in the aims of higher TRPs for their sister channel’s show. You have to watch the “khaas” programme – which features and highlights Omji slapping the female panellist repeatedly, set to background music – to truly appreciate how low journalism can fall. It’s titled, “Dekhein: Om Ji Ke Liye Ek Thappad Ne Kaise Khol Diye Bigg Boss Ke Ghar Ke Darwaze” (Watch: How A Slap Opened The Bigg Boss House’s Doors For Omji).

When journalism starts treating reality shows as serious business and validating them by editors appearing on them and reporting on these shows, I suppose all we as readers can expect is journalism which belongs in the toilet.