Indian Idol 2012 participant Nishant Kaushik recounts mismanagement and trauma behind the scenes

Reality shows on television have always been a huge crowd puller. Most shows have a considerable number of contestants fighting for the coveted slots which obviously are a few in number. However, the scenario behind the scenes for such shows have always remained a point of debate for many. Some have even questioned the authenticity of such shows in picking talent.

Recently, a former participant from the 2012 Indian Idol , (a music reality show, currently in its 10th season, which attempts to find the best talents in the country), spoke about his ill experiences on the show. Nishant Kaushik openly confessed that the show was a platform which successfully crushes dreams of upcoming talents rather than honing their skills in music. He recounted how he had witnesses a two kilometer-long queue when he had gone for the Mumbai auditions being held at a school playground.

Brief, nonchalant thread about my auditioning experience at Indian Idol 2012 and why I think it is a perfect platform to destroy your dreams as opposed to its common perception as a breeding ground for talent.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

May. Mumbai. I rocked up at the venue more out of casual interest. On joining a queue 2 km long I noticed enthusiasts who had arrived there as though their lives depended on them. Some with their mothers holding Prasad, other rebels who had braved odds and traveled alone.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

I joined the queue at 7 AM. There were people who had arrived at 5 AM. Others who had camped overnight. False notion that early arrival = early audition. No one from the crew to dispel such notions. Gate opens 1 PM.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

He said he joined the waiting line at 7 am and yet there were people who had not only arrived before him but some had camped at the spot overnight for a chance to audition first. Finally, when the venue opened at 1 pm, the aspiring contestants entered the grounds only to discover that there were no arrangements made for toilets or drinking water at the place. Food stalls were also not set up anywhere. Despite that, people continued waiting in the line, scared that leaving the queue would cost them an opportunity.

In those long hours of waiting, no accessible toilets or food stalls or drinking water taps. If you step out in search, you risk losing the queue which you'd then have to rejoin. Anyway at 1 pm the long wait ended right? Wrong.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

Kaushik goes on to describe how the crowd was called towards a stage set up on the grounds, while the “vulture”-like camera crew urged them to cheer on for the ex-contestant on stage, who was allegedly lip-syncing to a song. The crew had even chosen a select few from the aspirants to mouth-scripted lines, giving them the bait of early auditions which never actually happened. The ’events’ went on till 8 pm at night without any hint of auditions. This irked a particular contestant who got up to inquire where the judges were. That was apparently when a crew member came charging towards the man and slapped him before thousands. The members consequently got into a brawl with the contestant and he was asked to leave. Then the crew started selecting people at random to sing for the cameras. The ones who sang poorly were whisked away to the audition rooms for the judges to mock them. This had become so traumatic, Kaushik claims, that one of them broke down.

That mockery went on. The judges relished that fellow's naivety, asking him to keep taking a pitch "higher and louder" till his voice turned into frail shrieks that sent them into peals of laughter. He came out in tears. Elsewhere in the corridor we heard of contestants fainting.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

Evicted by the third round of auditions that year, Kaushik says he was more than glad to leave the show. He even mentioned that the people hired to dismantle the sets on Indian Idol   at the venue, were harassed by the crew members.

I crashed out in Round 3 of the auditions close to midnight, and was nearly relieved when it happened. But I went home satisfied that I got a taste of a show that on TV had always appeared alluring. Shocked as I was by its reality, I was a wiser man by the end of the day.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

He questioned the format of such shows and urged aspirants to never depend on validation from such TRP-oriented reality shows.

The complete thread can be read here .