We all know how ‘real’ the reality shows are, but they continue to rock the TRP charts every single week. The recent being Khatron Ke Khiladi which continued to rule the charts throughout the two months it aired. We also see a lot of celebrities gracing the shows to promote their respective projects and have seen them breaking into an emotional moment, dancing with the contestants, getting fan gifts, etc. on-screen. But have you ever wondered what goes on behind-the-scenes?
What if someone tells you that from their clap to their praises to their “impromptu” gig, everything is scripted. Forget that, how about the rather cold behaviour of the ‘hot’ stars with the staff and on ground managers there? Well, after the infamous airport stories, an anonymous reality shows Backstage Manager conducted an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Reddit and made some shocking revelations about the rather indecent behaviour of our Bollywood stars, and gave an insight on the actual reality behind the reality shows.
From Bhumi Pednekar ridiculing a spot boy for his poor English to Kartik Aaryan’s “superiority complex” to Karan Johar looking down upon people and Akshay’s rather awkward conversations with the women staff and more.
1. When Bhumi Pednekar made fun of a spot boy for pronouncing ‘water’ wrong!
A Reddit user asked, “Tell us something about Bhumi. Your reaction to her was surprising” To this, the manager answered, “Where am I supposed to start. Shows up late. Okay …that’s normal. Demands us to immediately cast all our attention to her. Okay…bit demanding and pushy here. Makes fun of how the spotboy said water, proceeds to ridicule him. (He pronounced it as Va-ta-rr) Proceeds to make him say water again and again and laughs on his face each time. Proceeds to get her co star to awkwardly laugh away during that cringeworthy moment and make him say water again even when the poor guy is saying sorry, please let me go ma’am again and again.”
2. Priyanka Chopra shouts at a fan to stop crying after shouting and pushing him whilst taking a selfie
When a user asked to rate the behaviour of celebrities, he gave a nay to Priyanka. Upon being asked, “Elucidate on Priyanka if possible,” he replied, “Priyanka- Our equipment manager was a huge fan of hers, his hands started shaking so he couldn’t properly take a good selfie. She could have refused when he asked to take another one, but she shouted at him and pushed his hand which made him drop the phone. Our equipment manager couldn’t handle it and started crying. Priyanka told him to basically shut up or get fired. I trust this story 100% since it’s confirmed by multiple people.”
Coming to the reality behind the shows format, he maintained that while sob stories are the key to TRPs, the voting is mostly genuine or at least the team tries to keep it as authentic as possible.
Revealing that while most of the friendships and fights on the reality shows are scripted, there are a few who genuinely are good friends. “Depends on the show you are talking about. I have managed 2 shows for a channel so far. One of them had hosts that genuinely seemed friendly with each other off cam. Other one had them glued to their phone screen all the time. Always a clash of egos when they chatted with each other. They do behave differently backstage. Tonnes of stress smoking, belittling and all for one of the shows. A user even asked about the safety of contestants who perform dangerous stunts on stage, the manager replied, “This happens way too much in a dance show I work for. And yup, still pretty less safety. Apparently, they should be grateful for the opportunity. Spend 30,000 rupees on the stupid stand but don’t spend even 1k for a person’s safety, makes sense! But that’s how the budget is allotted, I feel powerless. Channel gives their sympathies. No compensation.”
