Band baaja and a vulgar display of wealth

There is no business like the business of shaadi. Be it films or TV shows (soaps and reality both) what succeeds is even a reference to shaadi. Wedding shows have always attracted the audience — be it ‘item girl’ Rakhi Sawant’s hunt for a husband or notorious Rahul Mahajan’s televised wedding on Rahul Dulhaniya Le Jayega. And now, it’s Shaadi 3 Crore Ki. A channel official explains the reason why they named it Shaadi 3 Crore Ki. “The money symbolises the ostentation and scale of the wedding. The three crores simply indicate what the viewers should expect — a lavish and spectacular wedding,” he states. I know a lot of people are watching this one. Unlike Rahul or Rakhi, this one doesn’t follow any format but has a real regular couple on board - Jasmeet and Ishu. As per the show, the 'lucky couple' has three crores to their disposal to organise a lavish wedding. Through each episode the channel will take the audience through the entire wedding preparations, and finally, host the wedding ceremony. Weddings have always been king on TV. Whenever a show faces a slump, the producers cleverly bring on a wedding track and voila, you have the ratings go up. My problem is not with those kind of weddings. But when you say a wedding is a 3 crore one and the couple come from middle class then there is a serious disconnect. Sure, they may be the blessed ones and hence privileged to enjoy something that in normal circumstances would not have happened. So why grudge them would be the argument. But who is the audience for such shows? It’s the young small town girls and scores of homemakers for whom marriage is the biggest milestone in life. So when I see Jaipur-based Rashi, gushing in her Swarovski-studded lehenga, on NDTV Good Times’ Band Baaja Bride or the promos of actress Ratan Rajput covered in kundan jewellery from head to toe, looking for a suitable husband on Ratan Ka Rishta I have a problem. Are all weddings going to be upscale and as exotic as what you see on these ‘real’ shows? Sadly, shows like this do influence a popular mindset. Many now want a lavish wedding. In fact even Rajput has confessed that before her TV days she used to get very excited and curious about these weddings on TV shows and secretly wished for it too. There will be so many other Ratans who secretly wish the same for themselves. For me these shows are as unrealistic as the weddings they show and not every family will be able to afford such a lavish wedding. A noted writer of shows attributes the spate of new soaps on shaadi to market research. He says that now it is clear that our major audience is middle-class women. And we all know that all that matters for them is 'jaldi se bete/beti ki shaadi kar do'. They think shaadi is the only miracle that can change lives, and that's what these shows are talking about. In a country like ours where a major component of television viewers is the middle class, should we be shown splurging on such extravaganzas is the question? Sadly the season’s favourite shaadi 3 crore ki has no content worth its salt. In fact if it had justified the amount spent one would have probably not raised this issue. Most of the times that a wedding is shown in all its vulgar glory, it’s only about the money…there is no honey. In fact sources suggest that when Sara Khan and Ali Merchant chose to get married (and probably a second time over) on Bigg Boss it was only for the money that they would make…and if the same sources are to be believed it was nothing less than for 50 lakhs each one of them pocketed! Not to forget the designer togs and jewellery they were given for this special occasion. So do all marriages come at such a steep price? For once I am on the same page as the National Commission for Women (NCW) who asked the Union Ministry for Information & Broadcasting to impose a ban on real-life marriages on reality shows. May be our reasons are different. Read more...