Indian Idol's ex-host Mini Mathur on contestant's allegations: 'Reality TV has incessant need to create false emotions'

Former host of Indian Idol, Mini Mathur has confirmed ex-contestant Nishant Kaushik’s allegations regarding the deplorable condition of amenities behind the scenes on the music reality show. [caption id=“attachment_5042371” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Mini Mathur as a host on Indian Idol. Image from Facebook[/caption] Mathur, on 22 August, responded to Kaushik’s Twitter thread by saying that even though she was not a part of the particular season of the show, she was aware of such incidents happening on reality television shows. She even added that the kind of inhuman treatment was one of the reasons she opted out of reality television shows.

This sucks. Thanks for forwarding me this thread. I wasn’t part of the 2012 season but I know most of what he has articulated is known to happen on reality tv. One of the reasons I bowed out. This incessant need to create false emotion.
RIP Organic, pure TV.

— Mini Mathur (@minimathur) August 22, 2018

Citing the problem as an “incessant need to create false emotion”, Mathur’s comment comes as an endorsement to Kaushik allegations of Indian Idol. 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

More from Entertainment

'Jugnuma' Movie Review: Manoj Bajpayee, Deepak Dobriyal, Tillotama Shome’s terrific performances stood out in this beautifully restrained way of storytelling ‘Real fight’ is between Karisma Kapoor and Priya Sachdev: Sunjay Kapur's mother's lawyer says in HC: 'Rani Kapur does get impacted by it but...'

Kaushik mentioned the desperation of aspiring contestants who were scared of leaving their spot in the queue despite the lack of basic amenities like usable toilets, drinking water and food stalls.

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 went on to describe how the rampant delay in beginning the audition irked a particular contestant whose angry inquiries were met with physical violence by a crew member who walked up to the aspirant and slapped him before thousands. This was followed by another shocking revelation wherein Nishant claimed that most crew members were picking contestants at random to test their singing abilities, and the ones who sand badly were quickly whisked off to the judges room after which a session of mockery followed. This was so traumatic for a contestant, that the person 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

Kaushik 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.