Amole Gupte spoke about child exploitation in Indian Reality Shows!

One of the most common conceptions general Bollywood fans would have about all the glitz and glamour of entertainment industry is, there must be a darker side of all. And mostly it is true, as all entertainment industries are bound by the rule of “show must go on!” and everyone has to work around the clock to the keep this industry flourish but everything has to make an exception on the sets with kids are there!

Ever since the era of reality shows on Indian Television saw the boom, the entertainment industry is blessed with the new horde of talent and a fair share has to be given to the reality shows based on Kids and their talents which could be dancing, acting and mostly singing! Creators of such reality shows paint contestant’s backstory mostly to milk sympathy from the audience and to live up to such high-rise expectations, since TRP (Television Rating Point) and paid SMS polling dependent on it, literally exploit such contestants, so be it, adults or children! Even in a sane mind, it could be called off as fair in the case of adults, but in the case of kids it is harsh and tends to scare their childhood and their talent!

Prominent filmmaker and child activist, Amole Gupte , appealed government to make and imply certain laws to prevent such malpractices which cause nothing but harm to these innocent children. Being in conversation with a daily, he shed light on certain untold reality of these reality shows and told,” "They are brought from distant towns to Mumbai and huddled into cheap hotels with their parents. Every morning, they have to travel to the TV studio for rehearsals. These kids have wrenched away from all normal activities and are thrown into a single-minded devotion to lending their voices to these reality shows. They are made to shoot for countless hours, sometimes in humid non-air-conditioned rooms.”

He also shared an incidence of over-exploitation and told, “A little blind boy had made it to the finals of a singing contest. Throughout the day he was rehearsing under gruelling circumstances for his song and finally at 1 am when he was to record, he lost his voice. The child was traumatised for life." An even while ago, another director of B-town, Shoojit Sircar , also raised concern on such issues!

There is no denying that a child’s dream and talent needed to be voiced and valued, but it is also needed to be realised that they are kids and they are not needed to be employed like adults. And there is no doubt government should take necessary action in such instance!