Indiantelevision.com > Box Populi by Aparna Joshi > Rich pickings for news channels

First, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan ended the speculation surrounding their relationship and announced their engagement. News channels,expectedly, couldn't have enough of it. Teams were despatched to interview the throngs outside the Bachchan residence in Mumbai, thrusting microphones in the faces of bystanders asking them to croon their favourite Abhishek song, and security guards of distant lanes were quizzed ad nauseum about whatever they may or may not have known about the Abhi-Ash romance.

While the others remain content with quoting the senior Mr Bachchan,"We didn't know anything. Abhishek proposed to her in New York and she said yes!"

Channels unquestioningly lapped up the quote, even though practically every pundit, producer and passerby had known the fact for a long time now.

Aaj Tak went further by chatting up Abhishek's naani (maternal grandmother) in Bhopal. Clearly unused to the media and its inane questions, Ms Bhaduri smiled her way through most queries, including the one on Abhishek, asking "How was he in his childhood?" "He was a normal child, what else?" was the bemused reply.

Hardly had the Abhi-Ash news died down that the Big Brother fracas over Shilpa Shetty's racial harassment had the channels in a tizzy. The programme could not have hoped for better mileage than the hours of airtime devoted to it over all the channels. While debates on racism and cultural clashes raged across channels, both Shilpa and the show derived maximum sympathy and mileage, respectively. Wouldn't it be possible that Channel 4 had been aware that racial prejudices could surface and add to the buzz around the show? Obviously, there's nothing like a controversy to boost the ratings for a reality show. Let's see if the Indian version can come up with something to match its international sibling and help its sagging performance.

Bigg Boss has been dull in the last two weeks, in spite of Kashmera's re-entry and Rakhi's outbursts. The bonhomie that supposedly exists between the house guests is now giving a sheen of ennui to the proceedings. Consequently, even whacky tasks end up boring both the participant and the viewer. Over to the news channels, again. Even as Abhi-Ash had the nation in thrall, India TV took time off to air repeated footage of the offensive YouTube clips that spoof Mahatma Gandhi. Once would have been enough, but for close to an hour, the channel insisted on beaming the clips over and over, reaching out to far more viewers than the website probably intended.

A few days later, there was more sickening coverage in the form of leopards being stoned to death, one in Srinagar and one in Nashik, Maharashtra. While the amateur cameras did a good job of catching the torture of the hapless animals, the gory pictures will hopefully make urbanites take a more humane stance the next time jungle denizens venture into their concrete jungles.

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With so much action on the news channels, it was easy to skip the glamorous entertainment channels this week. Although every cursory look at Star Plus yielded a different look at the King Khan, who will storm our screens next week. Shah Rukh in promos, Shah Rukh at home, Shah Rukh playing with his kids, and now a promised Shah Rukh music video....it's increasingly sounding like a plea from the king Khan to please come watch him on Star Plus next week, please, please, please....

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Couch potato's whackiest news item of the week - an India TV report on a 'dayan' (possessed woman) in the UP interiors, who reportedly goes about asking people for onions in the dead of night, and then kills them. Was that a joke, or has the channel lost its onions?

(The views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)