She is the dhak dhak girl of Bollywood. He is the Dabangg star of B-Town. When they come together on Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, what do you expect? Magic? Check. Masti? Check. Full on filmy recreation of their blockbuster ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’? Double check.
Audiences today want maximum fiction on TV, because unwinding in front of the idiot box has more to do with masala than knowledge or entertainment. If it’s a dance reality show like Jhalak and you have a participant performing Madhuri Dixit’s (who is a judge on the show) ‘Ek Do Teen’, we expect the diva to groove to her breakthrough song on stage. It’s more to do with our expectations of her than anything else. We want to know if the actress still has it in her to recreate the hottest number from one of her super hit movies.
Why this need to constantly look for filmy moments on a show based on dance? Because we want a ‘package’. If we are spending an hour of our time on a program, we better get masala, filmy tadka and a generous dose of nostalgia. If a Shah Rukh Khan comes on a show with his former heroine, we long for a ‘Dil Toh Paagal Hai’ moment. In fact, when SRK came on the singing reality show ‘Indian Idol Junior’ to promote his ‘Chennai Express’, he and Deepika Padukone were made to re-enact ‘Aankhon Mei Teri’ from ‘Om Shanti Om’. The only reason this was done was to make us relate to them. We would probably watch the movie, if we realised what great chemistry the two share. It’s all about selling the product.
There was a time when we would watch reality shows for some real fun, now it’s more about film promotions and filmy re-creations. Just when watching bimbos gyrating to items songs wasn’t enough, we have to watch actors re-living their glorious past onscreen again. Aur vaise bhi, what more can you expect from a show like JDJ that has Karan Johar as one of the judges!
