Who needs Bigg Boss when your TV is one giant reality show

Every July/August, ever since this show made its way to Indian drawing rooms, one person has had their work sorted. His/her job is to just go over the last year in photos, videos, media reports, and list out the most controversial of the lot from the year. A handful of people is selected from this "Most Controversial of The Year" list, and invitations are sent out to these guys: "Come, participate in the reality show of the year. And see your life change." Indeed, lives have changed after people have participated in this mother of all soaps on Indian TV - Bigg Boss.

M for Murder

But who needs Bigg Boss when there is more drama out of that enclosure where animal instinct kicks in as contestants face off in a no holds barred battle to survive? Switch on the TV, and you have images of people, big and small, clawing out their share of notoriety. The crown of course has gone to Indrani Mukerjea this year, the woman who rose phenomenally to fall in a diabolical twist not seen outside suspense dramas.

Of course like the Bigg Boss house, there are cameras everywhere following the dramatis personae. Indrani, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna, are hooded by the police. Her husband before Khanna, Siddhartha Das, has helmeted himself but the faces are not important, the characters are, in this real life tragedy.

M for Mother

Then there is Radhe Maa, who brings a touch of comedy to the proceedings. Dolly Bindra, once a contestant in the Bigg Boss house, claims that the bhakt-proclaimed maa made her strip before her disciple-in-chief Talli baba, who exposed his genitals to her.

A dance of divine orgy followed. She said these despicable things in an FIR. If the Bigg Boss makers are able to negotiate a not-so-divine deal here, Radhe Maa will undoubtedly be the most beautiful of the faces inside the house, with or without red lipstick.

M for MSG

The list this year has got Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan too, apparently. Remember his death-defying stunts, the guitar-wielding, Harley-riding avatar in MSG - Messenger of God? That film might not find a place in classics of Indian cinema, if you stick to traditional yardsticks of judgement, but MSG is a class apart. Both the baba and his fictional/real avatar. As for his followers, so much is the love for MSG baba that a teaser of a sequel to MSG 2 is already out. Just that his entry to Bigg Boss will ensure this one too is a hit, along with the baba's followers increasing exponentially. After all, when have they ever seen their demigod inside a closed space, with the person unaware of the cameras following him?

Even without the Bigg Boss house, this season (and every season, for that matter) has probable contestants who are already so much out there - on your TV 24 hours and more. The cameras in studios are always on them, and if they are untraceable, rest assured, news hounds will get them in front of the lens. Escaping the prying eyes of the news cameras is a daunting task. Even with helmets and scarves and hoods, one is always under surveillance.