From millionaire to slumdog: show cashes in on hit…
Teetering in high heels and a tight mini-dress over a pile of curry-smeared dishes, model Pooja Mishra holds a clean plate aloft and struts down a slum alley as if she’s on a fashion runway.
“Yay!” she cries, flashing her perfect teeth for an awestruck local crowd. “Finally, I have washed one plate in my life.”
In filth-strewn lanes nearby, former Miss India Natasha Suri whimpers as she pounds eye-watering chilies into powder, a young nightclub owner and infamous Page Three partier deliver buckets of kerosene balanced on a bamboo pole, and the offspring of wealthy Indian politicians and Bollywood actors squeal as they herd goats and gather garbage.
Camera crews catch every grimace as they record India’s latest reality television hit. Called The Big Switch , the show is unabashedly capitalizing on the success of the Oscar-winning movie, Slumdog Millionaire , by putting 10 young, rich Indians in a slum where they must live, work and compete for a cash prize.
Together, they’re filmed prancing along dank lanes in designer duds, while griping about squat toilets, sleepless nights without air-conditioning and the degrading work of cooking their own meals.
Often, they make a mockery of the young slum kids, dubbed “dreamers,” who are assigned to help them.
While the production by the UTV Bindass network is attracting many viewers from the lucrative youth market, the show’s format is catching flak.
“Slum becomes the new chic in reality entertainment,” wrote one newspaper reviewer.
“The mockery of it all is only too obvious … as we watch these designer-clad babes and babas (prominent people) washing utensils and cleaning buffalos.”
One right-wing political party complained that India’s lower castes are ridiculed in one episode where rich contestants are shown polishing shoes on sidewalks.
And groups that advocate for the country’s poor have said they are disappointed by the show’s popularity.
“I don’t see this show making people aware of real poverty,” said Hennu Singh, director of Salaam Balak Trust, a New Delhi program for street children.
“More people here must see through their tinted car windows at those begging on streets and living in slums.”
Recent studies frequently point out the widening gap between rich and poor in India’s booming economy.
Forbes found the number of billionaires in India has almost doubled in the last year. The ranks of the super rich now include 100 people whose combined net worth is $276-billion, or about a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product.
Meanwhile, about 27 per cent of the population lives below the official poverty line of 25 cents a day, a farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes, and 2 million children younger than five die each year due to poor nutrition or medical care.
But India’s privileged seem unaware of this disparity. A recent UNDP survey found most middle- and upper-class respondents believed stress, not hunger or poor sanitation, is the nation’s greatest health challenge.
Given this reality, K.T. Suresh, who heads an aid program in Mumbai’s sprawling Dharavi slum, said the show’s estimated budget of $3-million could be better spent.
“This is just voyeurism for the wealthy,” Mr. Suresh said. “I am quite amazed by the show concept, that living together with poor people can be considered such a spectacle and endurance test.”
But Heather Gupta, the show’s creator and UTV channel head, said The Big Switch is a “valid awareness-raising opportunity,” particularly for young viewers.
The show pairs a young slum dweller with a rich contestant to work together on menial tasks. One pair gets eliminated every week until the poor contestant of the victorious pair finally wins the $25,000 grand prize.
“To say this is a false or patronizing look at the poor is just unfair,” Ms. Gupta said. “I believe we are trying to help a few kids here. Honestly, what’s wrong with that?”
Neelam Dumbre, one of the show’s poor contestants, said she’s gained confidence while participating in The Big Switch . The 19-year-old dreams of studying psychology at university and helping her widowed mother, who suffers from depression.
And her rich partner, Bindi Mehta, said befriending Ms. Dumbre has forever altered her privileged world view.
In one episode, Ms. Mehta is shown driving a BMW, shopping in New York and displaying a closet crammed with clothes and jewels. But soon, she gets down in the slum dirt and is proud of it.
“We carried bricks, mixed cement with our hands and it got right in our cuticles,” she said. “When you think how these people live and work in the heat, it’s like travelling to a different country.”
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