By Shailesh Kapoor
Indian award shows have earned themselves a lot of infamy over the last decade or so. With the rise in social media debates over years, the silliness of the process (or indeed the lack of it) behind selection of winners in various award shows has been criticized extensively. Many stars have also been candid enough in their interviews to admit that they have been offered awards in exchange of a guaranteed event appearance or a discounted fee for a performance.
Right from the selection of categories to the choice of winners, it has been one big mess, across all award shows, without exception. I wrote on this topic in this column back in 2013, and I don’t have to edit a word in that piece to make it 2016-compatible. Some things will never change.
But what has changed is the approach towards the televised events the award shows potentially create. This has been the best season for award shows on television, both in terms of quality of content and ratings. Big Star Entertainment Awards, Colors Stardust Awards, Star Screen Awards and Filmfare Awards have all met with varied levels of success, and have been a lot more engaging in terms of their content than they have been over the years.
Here are a few reasons why televised events (not the ‘awards’ part of them) are flourishing, and will continue to do so:
1 The focus of these events has shifted from awards to entertainment, keeping the television audience in mind. The TV audience can’t care less about who won the Best Music or the Best Supporting Actor. Most of them don’t visit theatres or follow Bollywood anyway. They just want to be entertained, via comedy and dance performances. This has been understood better than ever before.The fact that the winners are announced in the media days before the televised event is aired further brings weight to the performances.
2. Younger Bollywood stars are a lot more uninhibited about what they can perform or say on the stage, and are willing to go that extra mile, well knowing that these events build their equity, by exposing them to the masses via television. Ranveer Singh has been in top form this year, killing it at every show he has been a part of.
3. Top shows (except Naagin) have a rating of 3-4% today, vis-Ã -vis 5-7% a few years ago. Award shows have been outperforming running fiction and non-fiction content by rating in the 3-6% range.
4. The clutter of sameness on GECs has been bothering viewers for a while now, and televised award shows are emerging as effective clutter breakers.
5. By making Filmfare a ticketed event this year, not only did the magazine manage to get an additional source of revenue, it also made the televised event look a lot more purposeful. Some other award shows may not have the equity to go ticketed, but it’s a new dimension in the mix nevertheless.
As we get closer to the Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb 28 (Monday early morning IST), it is safe to say that the “awards†part of the award shows is nowhere close to that level of aspiration (for the talent) or credibility (for the audience). But the entertainment part of the televised events is finding viewer traction. A lot of traction.