The media world is changing fast and we are about to witness another big change - for the first time perhaps - where the entertainment world is bringing forth ‘news’ (not the other way round) - and that too ‘positive’ news. Many of these five minute presentations are startling in their content – an Indian scientist, working mostly in Africa, has created a ‘poor man’s microscope, which is selling in millions. A foreign trained civil engineer, now based in Bangalore, is promoting ‘forests’ in small plots of urban land. Another engineer goes further and invents a machine that captures carbon particles from emissions in the atmosphere and recycles them for making paints, crayons, and pencils. The most amazing presentation was by a lady music director, who without any instruments in front of her, plays the sitar, the piano and the rest - in virtual space!
Shah Rukh is one of the few Indians who had participated in an international TED Talk platform and he did talk – and quite consistently – for about 15 minutes. He knows how rigorous is the selection process of these talks and what amount of research goes behind these presentations. The first Indian episode was on the whole remarkable, though some of the micro episodes (like that of the author) leaves a question mark. Is five minutes enough for a literary person to make an impact?
The role of the anchor for the international TED Talks is insigni-ficant; except for introducing the speaker at the beginning, he hardly has anything to do on stage. But for the Indian version of TED talks where an hour-long episode has several micro units threaded together, the role of the anchor becomes important. There Shah Rukh, with his usual antics, did a smart job. Holding the attention of the audience for an hour – and that too with serious discussions – is no mean job!
There the apprehension begins. The audience cheers when Shah Rukh tries to play one of his film tunes in the episode on music in virtual space. Many have accepted the cheerleaders in the IPL match but there are many more who still boycott IPL because they think serious cricket has been ‘murdered’. If news continues to weigh heavy on the audience primarily with negative news in the usual news channels, the entertainment channels might – as in the case of TED Talks India of STAR – introduce a new trend with ‘positive news’ through fun and entertainment, which might become as popular as IPL. Who knows what the future will be of news channels?!
For the moment, TED Talks India is a welcome innovation in Indian television. But how far entertainment will dilute information we must wait and watch.
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