Prashant Tamang's Perfor

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Draft for the Kathmandu workshop on 'Creation of Public Meaning during Nepal's Democratic Transition' (4-5 September 2011); DO NOT CITE or QUOTE

Resurgence of ‘Nepali National Identity’ in the Age of Identity Politics and Media Globalization: Prashant Tamang’s Performance in Indian Idol 3 and Discourses in Nepali Print Media

By Harsha Man Maharjan

1. Introduction Prashant Tamang, the winner of Indian Idol 3, a reality show of Indian television channel, Sony Entertainment Television (SET), got a contract of a music album with Sony BGM Music Entertainment (India) Pvt.Ltd, as a prize and he named it Dhanyavad, a Nepali word for Thanks. It was released in November 2007, and contained 11 songs: three Nepali and eight Hindi songs. It was different from what previous winners did: they came up with their albums containing Hindi songs only. Why was this difference? According to Tamang, who hails from Darjeling, and a member of West Bengal Police, this album was a tribute for Nepali community who were living in India and abroad, and who voted passionately for him while he was participating in the program.1 Since then he had acted in three films in Nepali language as hero, and the first of them, Gorkhapalatan was big hit. It is interesting that Amit Paul, who became second in the program, had sung a song in Hindi movie, Luck By Chance and few others participants are hosting programs in Indian TV channels. All name and limelight Tamang is having is definitely the result of his celebrity figure as an Indian Idol. From June to September 2007, he hogged headlines of Nepali print media as news, articles, letters to editor, etc, which we can name as Prashant Tamang Phenomenon. This coverage triggered a massive campaign in support of Tamang, and many people, institutions collected money to vote for Prashant, which brought waves of nationalism in national and transnational level. This paper studies this phenomenon, and tries to see reflection of activities surrounding a participant of a reality show based on an international format owned by a global player in

1 Personal interview,

entertainment market in Nepali print media. I think it would be inadequate if we concentrate only on the involvement of Nepali people living inside Nepal and abroad or Nepali print media content to investigate this phenomenon. So, this paper not only studies the content of Nepali print media but also engages with debates on political economy of reality shows and participations of audiences in them. It links Nepali coverage related to Tamang with the nature of transnational media and global entertainment industry. Besides political economy and audience participation, this paper also deals with dynamics of local politics and identity politics in Nepal and Darjeeling. It intends to see this phenomenon through the angles of media globalization and identity politics. Thus, in this paper I have argued that the coverage of Prashant Tamang in Nepali media was the result of these three elements of media and politics. For this paper I have studied news, articles, editorials, letters to editor, etc published in Nepali print media from July to October 2007. SET had declared him the winner of Indian Idol 3 by September, but discussion on him continued even in October, so I have included October content in this study. Besides Nepali print media, I went through articles and news from Indian media available at internet, and tried to compare them with Nepali print media. I have divided this paper into two parts. First part is related to the global dimension of reality shows. It narrates a story on the penetration of global reality shows like Indian Idol in Indian television industry. The second and main part is discursive analysis of Prashant Tamang. Here my focus is to analyze aspects of Tamang, highlighted in the content of Nepali print media.

2. Media Globalization, Global Players of Reality TV and Indian Idol Indian Idol is the result of media globalization, where tv formats flow from one country to another in global level, promoting localization instead of homogenization or cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism was the debate of global media in 1970s and 1980s, when media products prepared for national need, values and norms, were exported. Now scenario of global media, which supranational institutions dominate (Sinclair 2004), has changed, these institutions export formats not the content, which follows the principle of glocalization, another form of globalization (Iwabuchi 2000). Think globally and act locally is the mantra of tv formats as reality show or tv and they are adapted according to local need.

Reality television is global business of billions of euros and global entertainment players are holding this market. According to a study done by the Format Recognition and Protection Association (FRPA), this market reached €9.3bn in 2006-2008 from €6.4bn in 2002-2004, and UK is in the top of the list of format exporters, followed by the USA, Netherland and Argentina. In three years UK imported 146 formats (FRAPA 2009). Please see illustration no. 1. And among these formats, 50 percent was reality shows (Lantzsch, Altmeppen and Will 2009).

Illustration no. 1. Source: Frapa Report 2009

UK based Fremantlemedia, Ltd, which is one of major players of entertainment industry, and a part of RTL Group, second largest TV, Radio, and Production Company in Europe, owns the license of reality shows based on Idols series like Pop Idol, American Idol, Indian Idol etc. According to Fremantle’s website, it creates, produces and distributes entertainment brands in 22

countries.2 But Fremantlemedia did not created this format and it was British music manger and media tycoon Simon Fuller who created Pop Idol, the original form of Pop Series after he popularized pop group Spice Girl in the world. It is managed by 19 Entertainment, a CKX, Inc. company. Frementlemedia got the license of this program after Fuller started partnership with this institution (Kjus 2009). Simon Fuller, whom British newspaper Telegraph called ‘the star-maker’ (Smith 2002), created and pitched his Pop Idol in October 2001 in British television. Pop Idol is a singing competition where interested and eligible people participate in auditions and after different rounds of competition; a winner is decided. It was a new crop of reality show where audiences could interfere in the result of the game show through phone calls and sms. Fuller reminisced

in 2011:

My show brought together many different elements to one show: Mass auditions, the search for a new star, judges, audience voting. We created this huge live TV event drawing more from a sporting concept of true competition than a conventional talent show. I then added the drama of backstories and the real-life soap opera of the unfolding real-time events. It was a reality music competition and soap opera brought together in one massive show that later became known as "Pop Idol"(Fuller 2011).

These new techniques attracted 8.7 millions phone votes on the final of the first season of Pop Idol and it became instant hit (Smith 2002). But it was only a British phenomenon and Fuller wanted to make it an international phenomenon. For this he had to pitch his program in the US. Television industry and it was a difficult task. Simon Fuller, Simon Cowell, one of judges of Pop Idol famous for his sarcastic comments and Simon Jones, Executive of Fremantlemedia tried for this, but no US television network showed interest in this program (Rushfield 2011). At last, Fox TV accepted to air the program, after Rupert Murdoch, CEO and chairperson of News Corporation, showed concern in the idol, American Idol (Carter 2006 ). American Idol was instant hit and 23 million people watched the first season which is the biggest audience to watch non-sport program in such duration in ten years (Franck and Nuesch 2007), and it kept on entertaining people. Now other countries also demanded this program and it became an international phenomenon. According to the website of Fremantlemedia, it is airing more than 135 series in

2 http://www.fremantlemedia.com/About_Us/What_We_Do.aspx. Accessed on 28 July 2011

more than 40 countries. It boasts that it has “a track record of guaranteed success in every country where it has been aired”. In 2002-2003, 19 Entertainment and Fremantlemedia collected over $ 250 million as format fees (Franck and Nuesch 2007). It is profitable business for tv channels too. For example Fox TV charged $ 600,00 per 30 second spot during the fourth first two seasons of American Idol in 2005, amassing at least $ 444. It also got Coca- Cola, Cingular and Ford Motor as sponsors and Fox had to pay $40 million to Fremantlemedia and Entertainment 19 per season (Lieberman 2005). In 2003, there was World Idol, where winners from countries like US, UK, South Africa , Germany, Australia, Norway etc participated. When Idol reached India in 2004, Idol series were popular in many countries.

2.1. Idol Reached India When Idol series reached Indian in October 2004, Indian television market for Hindi General Entertainment Channel (GEC) was dipping and fresh format programs like Indian Idol, helped a Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Channel to increase its viewership by 19 to 25 percent (Krishna 2004). But Indian Idol is not the first popular global format in Indian television; it was Kaun Banega Corepati, an Indian avatar of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television International. Kaun Banega Corepati, is reality show/quiz competition but Indian Idol is a singing competition and singing competition is a genre popularized in Indian television channels by Zee TV through programs Antakshari and Sa Re Ga Ma after Indian air was opened in post 1990. It was Star Plus which aired Kaun Banege Corepati in 2000 which attracted huge population, and it encouraged other TV channels like DD, Zee TV and Sony ET to go for such program (Thomas and Kumar 2004). This is the program which open road for Indian Idol and it is said that 2,00,000 people were calling each day on 570 telephone lines in four cities by July 2000 to register themselves for the program (Aiyar and Chopra 2000). Though Indian Idol was instant hit, people in Indian television business were reluctant to go for this program in the beginning. According to Indriena Basarah, GM of Fremantlemedia Asia, people used believe that India was not a solo singer market but a Bollywood market and people would value a Bollywood star more than a singer (Pino 2005). Yet when Indian idol came into India, it gave a new taste to audiences as Pop Idol did in the UK in 2001. This taste

was related to its format and Optymystix Entertainment and Meditech, which were responsible for introducing this program in India did preparation for more than six months to lunch this program. Tarun Katial, Business head of SET was sure that this format would work in India where music is important part of the young generation. He opined:

Idol is definitely not about finding another pop band(a la Channle [V]’s Popstars). Its about real people, real emotions and a good platform for somebody to become a rag t riches story. A very involvement and high emotion drama. It not just a talent hunt but reality show; as real as it can get (cited in Pherwani 2005).

According to a reporting published in online: www.indiantelevision.com, SET not only attracted huge viewership, it also provided “an alternative revenue stream (via sms)”(Pherwani 2005). People were attracted due to marketing strategy it followed. From the beginning it came with marketing efforts like strategic tie-ups with Vivid Bharati, Aaj Talk etc (Krishna 2004). The first season was aired from October 2004 to 5 March 2005. Over 20,000 people participated in auditions that took place in four cities (Bhandari 2005). Anu Malik, Sonu Nigam, and Farah Khan were judges in this season, wined by Abhijeet Sawant. Sawant’s blog claim him as a superstar. It even informs that 70,000 copies of his first cassette Aapka Abhijeet Sawanti which was released on April 7, 2005, were sold on the day of release. He even sang Marjawaan Mitjawaan in Aashiq Banaya Aapne.3 Altogether this season got 5.5 crores sms votes, “amounting to a total revenue of USD 3.75 M (INR 165 M) at USD 0.07/SMS (INR 3/SMS). Of this amount, telecom companies earned USD 2.61 M (INR 115 M), and Sony TV earned about USD 1.14 M (INR 50 M)” (Boston Analysis 2007: 13). Indian Idol is a profitable business for producers. According to a reporting, an episode of the First season cost just IC 6 million (Pherwani 2005).4 Indian Idol was seen as the end of monopoly of teleserials which used to grab eyeballs :

3 http://indianidolabhijeetsawant.blogspot.com/. Accessed on 19 July 2011.

4 It is amount given by the producer, but the journalist believed that it must be IC 3.5 to 4 million.

Indian Idol's finale has done for Sony Entertainment Television (SET) what no other show has done for it till date. The year on year monopoly of the Kyunkiis and the Kahaanis on the TRP charts was broken as the Indian Idol finale on 5 March was the second most watched show after Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi in week 10 (Adesara: 2005).

An analyst also compared Indian Idol with Kaun Banega Corepati which attracted 58 millions sms in three months (Boston Analysis 2007). And both Sony ET and Fremantlemedia were happy to see that Idol format succeeded in India. But there was concern among some people about the fate of Indian Idol 2: “While viewers will no doubt be awaiting the second season of Indian Idol, it remains to be seen if Sony will be able to sustain and retain the hype”. (Adesara: 2005).

1.2. Crisis Began So, there was a challenge for the organizer and producers, that magic of Indian Idol would remain intact. Gavin Wood, Director of Producation India, Fremantlemedia hoped to make Indian Idol season 2 “smoother operator” and argued, “We all learned a lot of lessons from the last Indian Idol series in terms of what we can do and what we can’t do in India as opposite to other countries” (Krishna 2005). It shows that Wood was too confident that Indian Idol 2 would be a hit. But he was wrong. Indian Idol season II did not do well in comparison to the first one. Indian Idol 2 was aired from 21 November 2005 to 22 April 2006. Judges and anchors were repeated from the first season and Sandeep Acharya became second Indian Idol, winning Rs.1 crore contract from Sony BMG, a music album contract and a brand new Maruti Baleno car. He released album Mere Saath Sara Jahaan.5 It seems that he did not sing any song for Bollywood later. He blipped as a bubble of water through Indian Idol 2 and lost in oblivion. We know a little about sms votes he got. It is very difficult to get it from popular media. It seems that Sony didn’t want to promote the real vote he got. However, from a blog, I came to

5 http://www.sandeepacharya.com/profile. Accessed on 18 July 2011.

know that he got 1.6 crores votes in the final.6 If this is so, it was less than the first season. It is believed that more than 40 % of total vote of Indian Idol is garnered on the final days. So, there was fatigue among the viewers of Indian Idol 2 and SET had to come up with a massive campaign and hype. Abhijeet Sawant, the first Indian Idol had concern on viewer fatigue:

It is true that repeating the success of the first show is always tough. KBC 1 was more popular than the next series. Similarly for Indian Idol, to repeat the magic of its first episode may not be possible. But with new faces among the judges I believe the enthusiasm of the audience will be maintained. However, the craze of the show will also depend upon the quality of the contestants and their performances (cited in Sengupta 2007).

More than fatigue, there was opposition on the way Indian Idol 2 was going. Sid Vora started this campaign in 10 February 2006 with a concern:

We, the viewers and fans of Indian Idol 2, request the show producers to bring the focus of II2 back to music. . We watch musical shows to enjoy good music as well as to support new and upcoming talent. Absurd polls and irrelevent gossip will only deteriorate the show's quality.. We viewers do not appreciate such insults against our favorites contestants; its an insult to talent, and to the music fraternity. This is a humble request to the forces behind II2 to bring the focus back to music. Let talent speak for itself and let the deserving contestants prevail (Vora 2006).

Till 23 July 2006, 145 people have put signatures on this petition which was published on online petition portal, Bureau of Petitions, having a motto, ‘Make a Difference, Change the world’ and all of them, except one, Nitish Kumar, a fan of Sandeep has disagreed with the petition. The voice of Malvika, posted on the site represented other’s concern too, which Indian 3 had to take a beginning of a crisis:

Indian idol 2 lost all credibility with the crowning of Sandeep(who?) as Indian idol. With the ouster of all good singers, it hardly encourages anyone with a sense of righteousness to watch another terrible singer winning next time. Sony seems concerned only with making money thru all the sms it can cajole people into sending, what with the pathetic anchors screeching their lungs out all the time. And the

66 Information available at http://www.amitpaul.org . Accessed on 5 August 2011.Due to the lack of other sources, I can’t claim this is the real votes. But for this paper, I believe it was what Sandeep got.

"extremely likeable" factor being touted about sandeep(who again??!!??) baffles me no end. He clearly comes across as dumb and moronic, with a terrible speech and little on his mind to say...No wonder that trashy smiloe all along.ARRRRGGGHHHH!! Wake up fellow indians! Surely, "Sandy" doesn't even qualify as the indian idol's kid's dog's pest even!7

1.3. Crisis Management Now the organizer of Indian Idol 3 had to manage this crisis, and regain its credibility. Under these circumstances, SET partnered with Miditech Pvt Ltd and Fremantle Media to announce the coming of Indian Idol 3 through a press release on 12 February 2007 through India PRwire, which is online press release distribution services having contacts of thousands of media. 8 The release had a title: ‘Chahiye Woh Ek Awaaz Jispar Ho Desh Ko Naaz' Indian Idol 3 – Coming Soon’(IndiaPRwire 2007 a), which gives message that now they were in search of real voice whom they could proud of. This release was the call for the registration for the audition of Indian Idol 3 which was going to be in 12 cities of India: Jodhpur – Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Srinagar,Nagpur, Baroda, Bhopal, Kanpur,Delhi,Kolkata and Mumbai (IndiaPRwire 2007 a). Interestingly, it did not mention about auditions in London and Dubai, which must have be decided later. Aspirants between ages 16 to 30 had to call or send sms to register for the audition. The press release introduced Indian Indian Idol and allured people:

Indian Idol is a 'made-for-television phenomenon' that combines drama and reality with music, humor, thrill and glamour. The last two seasons of the show experienced a collage of emotions, raising levels of viewer frenzy and excitement coupled with the contestants' tears and joys, heartbreak and jubilation, learnings and achievements.With its immense popularity, Indian Idol showcases exceptional talent on the nation's biggest platform. The phenomenon of following this journey and ultimately picking that 'Ek Awaaz Jispar Ho Desh Ko Naaz' becomes an integral part of the viewers' lives drawing ardent support and a voting frenzy. This year too Indian Idol will give the people of this nation the opportunity to chase their dreams and the power to make one talented aspirant ' Bharat Ki Shaan'. In addition to a recording contract with Sony BMG, the 'Indian Idol' will be awarded a contract with Sony Entertainment Television worth

7 http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/IndianIdol2/. Accessed on 1 August 2011.

8 http://www.indiaprwire.com/. Accessed on 3 August 2011.

Rupees One Crore, thus catapulting him/her to unparalleled stardom, fame and fortune(IndiaPRwire 2007 a).

Three days after this press release, they came with new press release and declared judges and hosts. It informed that Indian Idol 3 would be different in terms of judges and host. Now singers Alisha Chinoy, Udit Narayan Jha and Anu Malik were declared to be judges and male host was also changed (IndiaPRwire). It is interesting that when Indian Idol 3 started there were four judges including lyricist Javed Akhtar. Marketing and hype worked and 25 thousand people showed up in the audition. Indian Idol 3 was aired from 4 May 2007 to 23 September 2007 and it is believed that its opening episodes of 4 and 5 May attracted 27 million viewers (Indiantelevision.com team 2007). When final competition was near between Amit Paul and Prashant Tamang, there was upsurge of nationalism in regional, national and transnational level. People of Meghalya from where Amit hailed, initiated a campaign to support Amit by sending votes and other activities, which was known as Amit Paul phenomenon. His participation gave people of different groups from Meghalaya and Northeast India to come together and promote one cause (Punathambekar 2010, Mazumdar 2007). A journalist from Meghalaya sees Amit Phenomenon:

In a place where there’s nothing much to celebrate, Amit came as a godsend. He’s talented, and has won all our hearts by singing Khasi, Nepali, Hindi and English songs on the show. It reminded people of the cosmopolitan culture that once prevailed in the state (Mazumdar 2007).

Similar campaign began in Darjeeling, Nepal and places where Nepali lived, for Prashant Tamang (Cooper 2008). Massive votings for contestants were seen as participatory process, where people could decide the winner (Louhana 2010). It is said that two finalist got 70 million sms votes in the final 9 days from 14 to 23 September 2007, which was unprecedented in the history of Indian Idol. And it was a huge business. A study has shown that at average of Rs INR 3, it would be INR 21 crores or $ 5.25 million (Gundecha, Kosnik and Bajaj 2007) . This amount should be more than this. As there was provision of votes from 8 countries: India, United Arab Emirate,

Bahrain, Oman, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and United Kingdom and their rate is different . 9 I argue that we have to see the success of Indian Idol 3 as the effort of crisis management. Yes, it did attract huge population but the criticism of the nature of people participation remained. But the debate about the appropriateness of public voting kept on, as journalists wrote this before the final took place:

The basic truth is that talent-hunt shows such as Indian Idol, Voice of India, etc are not designed to find the best talent, but to generate maximum revenue for the said television channel. Hence the concept of unlimited voting, where one person can send thousands or even lakhs of SMSs/calls for his favourite participant/s. The channel gets its share of telecom traffic, but the truly popular participant is shown the door. Otherwise too, audience-vote is not a reliable way to judge a singer. The nuances of singing take years to understand, let alone judge. Audience voting is a popular format among producers only because it generates revenue, and also keeps viewers’ interest to the maximum (Ojha 2007).

But Sony did not listen to these concerns and it kept on organizing the program. In fourth Indian Idol, a girl, Sourabhee Debbarma won became Indian idol and fifth was won by Sreeramchandra Mynampati. Among five Indian Idols, only Abhijeet Sawant succeeded in terms of sale record of his albums and working in bollywood. There is a fear among people that these idols could not perform well in real life:

But the big question that is haunting talent hunt programmers is this: are they creating marketing chipmunks who then find it difficult to find jobs in the real world or truly talented singers who can take the place of talent hunt alumni such as Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan? (Bamzi 2007)

SET has started to search Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan again not through Indian Idol.

It has not started Indian Idol 6 yet, but went for X factor India in May 2011. Though it is

9 Available at http://www.sify.com/indianidol/images/jun2007/voting_terms.html. Accessed on 2 August 2011

another tv format licensed by Fremantlemedia, it has no provision of unlimited voting and there is a cap of 100 votes per phone.10 It is interesting that when Prashant Tamang won the idol in the final, a supporter of Amit Paul blame Nepal for it (Name not mentioned 2007). What role did Nepalese vote affect the final competition, we can’t say. But we can only guess that it had an effect.

3. Prashant Entered Nepal and Ruled Though Indian Idol 3was aired from 4 May 2007, the coverage of Prashant Tamang inNepali media began about a month after the telecast. It was not unusual as Indian Idol is the program of making a star. People generally don’t relate with participants during auditions. Liking and belonging began after they come to know these participants from close and then fandom begins (Homes 2004). This happens as television stars especially of reality shows are nearer to ordinary people than film stars. And reality show like Indian Idol leaves no effort to show that everybody could be a star (Homes 2004). It is proved by the blog of Prashant Tamang: http://prasanttamang.blogspot.com, which was started in gala round in 23 June 2007. Two day after this, a news was published in Samaya, Nepali magazine, which did not contain a byline. And this news open road for other news articles. But as other news followed it proves, it was written by Roshan Sawa, a journalist from Itahari who was working in dailies Annapurna Post, The Himalayan Times and Samaya.11

1. 10 xfactor.setindia.com/tnc_xfactor.pdf

11Email sent by Sawa on 27 July 2011.

Illustration 2: Content of Nepali media Months News Articles Letters to Nepali Amit Editor Tara Paul June 8 0 0 0 0 July 7 2 0 0 0 August 16 0 1 0 0 Septermber 92 37 27 3 2 October 23 2 0 3 0 Total 146 41 28 6 2 Source: Researcher

Illustration 2 shows that content on Indian Idol 3 kept on increasing from June to September. Content of October seems to be decreasing in the illustration as I have collected materials till 19 Oct 2007 only. Yet it shows that preference of Nepali media on Indian Idol and Prashant Tamang had decreased October. All campaigns in support of Prashant Tamang had ended then. And content of this month were on concerts of Prashant and few even evaluated whole Prashant Tamang as the resurfacing of Mahendra-made nationalism which took language and dress as the main rod to define nationality. This illustration shows how interest of people are shaped by media. First there were news and articles on the issue followed. Nepali media gradually showed interest in Prashant’s issue. Roshan Sawa said about the demand of Prashant in Nepali media:

In the beginning there was no demand of Prashant Tamang issue. Due to to popularity of that reality show and involvement of a Nepali origin person, everyone wanted to know more about Prashant. Now they started to give high priority. THT and Annapurna (sister publications APCA) frequently sent me Darjeeling to cover this issue. 12

In this section I have done discursive analysis of Nepali print media. In the beginning of this section I have shown the characteristics of Prashant Tamang that Nepali media presented, it also

12 Email sent by Sawa on 27 July 2011.

13 includes discourse of Nepali language and ‘national cap’, he used during Indian Idol 3. Then I will discuss about the coverage on political economy of Indian Idol 3 in Nepali media. Lastly I have analyzed these contents through the angle of identity politics of Darjeeling and Meghalaya, and also compared Amit Paul’s coverage in Nepali print media with some reporting in Indian media. By this I will argue how othering is basic part of national identity and idol making.

3.1. ‘Hamro’ to ‘Ramro’ Prashant When we go through the coverage of Prashant Tamang in Nepali print media, what we see is the most of this coverage was focused on his Nepali-origin feature. Shared culture and shared history of him attracted Nepali media and they started to give coverage to him. That means he was presented as ‘harmo’ or our Prashant first in Nepali media. It was followed with new argument that he is ‘ramro’ or good Prashant too.

3.1.1.Hamro Prashant: Shared Elements Scholars believe that organizers of reality shows deliberately tries to unleash identity politics. In case of Amercian Idol, Katherine Meizel argued that one of participants tried to identify oneself region, ethnicity and religious (Meizel 2006). Indian Idol 3 also unleashed nationalistic feeling among Darjeeling people by letting him to speak him Nepali language with Udit Narayan Jha. Once he was also presented in the uniform of Chwakidar and people Darjeeling took it as an assault in their pride. Bitter comments he got from judges stoke feeling of injustice among people in Darjeeling too. But almost all news published in Nepali media in the beginning were concerned with his Nepali origin and Nepali language he used at the program and at home. The first news on him, published by Samaya on 15 June had the headline, Prashant ko Uchain( height of Prashant). It tried to link Prashant’s origin with Nepal. In dramatic way, it introduced Prashant as Gorkhali lad and claimed that he would Keep Nepaliko Jatiya Pahichan or Identity of Nepali in the world. This news presented his Nepali-origin as sameness between him and other Nepali living in Nepal, through shared history. About a week after this news, Kantipur, a Nepali daily, published a full page news with two headlines: ‘Kathmandu Taranga’ ( Kathmandu wave) and ‘Acahanak Nayak’ (Hero Suddenly) on 23 June. The first news had no byline and informed how Nepali were happy to see a Tamang police, singing on the audition and he spoke Udit in Nepali language and Prashant was selected as the representative of Nepali Origin Indians. In reality he spoke with prashant in Hindi and at last

14 what Udit commented was Prashant’s officers would be happy to hear him selected in Indian Idol. In this news his mother tongue was seen as the symbol of Nepaliness. It also informed that he informed during a program that he spoke Nepali language at home. More than this it contained a quote from Vivek Karki, who was living in Mahargunj, and opined that it was pride for Nepali to have a person with Nepali origin and Nepali speaking person in India’s platform. Further he said that he would do efforts to make Prashant the winner, if there was provision of sending sms from Nepal (Name not mentioned 2064 v.s. a). Though the headline tried to show that the fever of Prashant had reached Kathmandu, but there was no campaign going on in support of Prashant there. Yes, people were watching Indian and this fever came in Kathmadu in Septermber 2007 only. Now stories started to pour from Nepal too. One example of this was 24 June news published by THT and written by Kumar Luintel with headline: Prashant earns fans in Nepal. It showed how Nepali were doing their best to support Prashant, and informed how Nepalis were sending sms through Indian SIM card in Kakarvita. It had a quote from a person in Pashupatinagar: “Prashant is not only the pride of Darjeeling, however he is the pride of all Nepalis” (Luintel 2007). “The pride of all Nepalis” are words we encounter again and again in news and articles related to Prashant Tamang. What these contents tried to show was Nepali language was a national identity that unified all Nepali in the world, and this was what believed in Darjeeling, Nepali language was supposed to bind all groups of Nepali-origin. History shows that Diasporic community of Darjeeling, Sikkim, etc discussed about the possibility of Nepali language as a lingua franca. Studies have shown that “national identity” of Nepal was the construct of public spheres in Vanaras, Darjeeling, etc during Rana period (Onta1996). These public spheres valorized so-called national icons through the tradition of “bir history ” and constructed Nepali nationalism and national identity propagating Nepali language (Onta 1997). And post -1950 Nepali state- especially Panchayat polity popularized monarchy, Nepali language and Hindu religion through public spheres (Burghart 1994), and Nepali language was declared national language for the first time in 1961 constitution. Institutions were established to promote this language, and communication and education plans were designed and implemented to expand the use of Nepali language in day to day life. In the name nation building, Panchayat polity followed assimilation process (Pfaff-Czarnecka 1997), giving not a fig to other languages spoken by Nepalis. This process helped in marginalizing minority groups and some of these groups came up with ethnic

15 institutions in post 1980 Nepal (Pfaff-Czarnecka 1997). Even 1990 constitution legalized discrimination against minorities in terms of language and religion by declaring Nepal a Hindu kingdom and Nepali language, the national language though there was demand for not declaring Nepali as national language (Hutt 1994). Yet, there were some leverage in 1990 constitution: it deemed its government’s responsibility to promote and preserve other languages, which prepared roads for ethnic activism. Many actors and institutions evolved to disseminate grievances of minorities. That’s why one social scientist looking at these spheres of Nepali society, Mary Des Chene (1996) dubbed post 1990 period as “Janajati Yug”. But national identity of Panchayat and post-1990 period had come into crisis in 2007. So rejection of old symbols of national identity was going on in 2007. Many people especially Janajati and others had stop believed that Nepali language was national identity that unify all Nepali people, but quite opposite to what was happening Nepal, in the name Prashant Tamang, old ‘Nepali National Identity’ resurfaced in Nepali media, which gave prominent place to the issue and once again Nepali language was shown as national identity of not only Nepal but Nepalis all over the world. When Prashant Tamang was participating in Indian Idol 3, Nepal was in a critical phase. On the one hand there was euphoria that Nepal was no more monarchy and it was a secular country. On the another hand there was concern for crisis of Identity in Nepal (Raj 2007). We have to see Prashant Tamang phenomenon even with crisis of so-called Nepali “national identity” in post April revolution of 2006. Another national identity of Nepal, which was popular in Panchayat was national cap. When he had worn a Chwakidar dress, reporting on him had not started in Nepal. We find his photo with the cap only in early September, when he reached top three with Amit Paul and Emon Chatterji. On 3 September 2007, Prashant went to Darjeeling, wearing a cap known as Dhaka topi, with a full security from SET. Though Nepali media published his photos, but no news mentioned about the cap. Instead they were interested in activities of fans. It became the topic of discussion in Nepali media, after he won Indian Idol on 23 September. His mother put a dhaka topi on his head on the stage. Next day, newspapers like Kantipur(Bhattarai 2064 v.s.b), Gorkhapatra(Shrestha 2064 v.s.), Rajdhani (No name mentioned 2064 v.s.c), The Rising Nepal (Timilsina 2007 a), etc highlighted the cap.

Prashant Tamang after he became Indian Idol 3 For example, Prasun Timilsina wrote this in TRN, “What more the Nepalese want than their national cap portraying the Nepalese culture on the head of the Indian Idol?” (Timilsina 2007 a). Prashant wore this kind of cap during his concert in Kathmandu and Pokhara and he

had bhadgaunle topi, another kind of cap when he met late pm Girija Prashad Koirala. It was not unsual for people of Darjeeling to wear this cap (Hutt 1997). History shows that these kinds of cap were popular in Panchayat period. We find these caps on the heads of kings and princess. At that time, gazetted government workers had to wear national dress including a cap. Even general people had to wear one to enter government office and it was mandatory in the photo for citizenship certificate. This trend ended after 1990. According to Shiva Regmi, a historian, there was lethargy among people after the end of Panchayat system13. More than this, I think it was seen as the relics of past polity since it was a part of national dress which followed ideology of ‘Ek Bhasa Ek Bhes’or one language, one dress. It is interesting that this cap is still part of national dress in Nepal though it is difficult trace its legality. By 2007 very few people wore the cap, and in post 2006 this cap has been featured in cartoons as the symbol of regressive forces, monarchy etc. But in reportings and some articles related to Prashant Tamang these caps were presented as a national identity which symbolize Nepal. So, we can argue that in name of Prashant Tamang, Nepali media tried to resurrect ‘Nepali national identity’ in the age of Identity politics.

There were few articles dealing with crisis of identity or national identity in Nepal. First of them was written by Narayan Khadka on 22 July and published in Nepal magazine. It had a title: Rastriytaka naya Adharharu (New Basis of Nationalism). He argued that the support Prashant he was getting from Nepalis was due to the feeling of nationalism and basis of nationalism were language, religion, history and culture. He even thought that if instead of Prashant there were a dalit or Madhesi, she/he would have also got same support. He concluded his article saying that Nepal had to discussion on nationalism (Khadka 2064 v.s.). Khadka tried to stimulate the discussion of national identity through this article. Prateek Pradhan wrote an article with the title ‘Nepali Identity and Prashant Tamang’ on 6 September. His article tells about the crisis of identity and national unity among Nepali. He added:

The story of Prashant Tamang is a lesson for all. If is clear that no matter where Nepalis are living, they consider Nepal their motherland, and will not blink over their identity. Obviously, there is a warning to

13 Interview with Regmi on 10 August 2011.

all ill-intentioned groups. But at the same time, it is also a warning to all vested interests within Nepak that are fulfilling their aims at risk of nationality and integrity. There is definitely no need to be terrified by the warnings of a foreign diplomat, but we should be always keep our eyes and ears open, and remain prepared to fight back any element that threatens our national identity and our sovereignty (Pradhan 2007: 4).

He also argued that Prashant Tamang phenomenon showed Nepalis that they could unit for national identity. But Madhesi scholars: Chandrakishor, C K Lal and Ram Rijan Yadav countered Khadka and Pradhan. All of three had argued that the popularity of Prashant showed hallowness of Nepali nationalism which was another form of Pahade Rastryabad, followed by Mahendra. Chandrakishor thought that modern Nepali nationalism exlude Madhesi and it preferred to accept Nepali-origins living in Darjeeling, Sikkim and Bhutan as Nepali. He even argued that Prashant Phenomenon threw cold water on the gains of popular movement of 2006 and Mahasi revolution (Chandrakishor 2007). In another article CK Lal hoped that Nepali nationalism would be more accommodative (Lal 2007). Similarly providing examples of Aruna Lama, Lainsingh Bangdel, Ranbir Subba, Tulsi Ghimire and Niruta Singh who came from West Bengal to Nepal, Yadav had argued that Nepali state did not recognized Maithali-speaking Indian Dhirendra Jha ‘Dhirendra’ who contributed a lot Maithali language (Yadav). It is interesting that Janjati groups were seemed supportive of Prashant Tamang though they have been criticizing Mahendra’s nationalism. I found no voices of Janajati activist on the issue in Nepali media. Quite opposite to it, Tamang Ghedung Sangh did campaign to support Prashant and it collected money for him (Gywali 2064 v.s.). Due to the feeling of ‘hamro’ Prashant, Nepali people initiated campaigns to collect money for sending sms and many people visited Darjeeling and Sikkim to distribute money. In the beginning, singers and artists like Babu Bogati, Nil David, etc, did this campaign, later people from Eastern Nepal joined them and at last the campaign reached the most part of Nepal and places where Nepali lived.

3.1.2.Ramro Prashant: Best Qualities With the discourse on ‘harmo’ Prashant, we also found a argument that Prashant had nice voice, defining him as a nice guy. Samaya ‘s news on 15 June, presented his simple, but hard work at Indian police in West Bengal as a member of orchestra team and included a comment

given by one of the judges Anu Mallik, during the audition, ‘You have unique voice, you will reach final’(Name not mentioned 2064 v.s.: 54). This news selectively used information of Prashant Tamang. During the audition two judges Alisha and Javed were not satisfied with his presentation. Javed commented that Prashant missed scales, and Alisha thought that his accent was unclear as he mixed sounds like ‘cha’ and ‘ja’. But they thought that he could improve it. What Anu Mallik said was that Prashant’s was the best singing, Mallik heard on that day .14

Next news, Achanak Hero, was written by Benup Raj Bhattarati and published in Kantipur on 23 June, gave picture of Darjeeling where people were distributing pamphlets, and organizing programs in support of Prashant. It also gave information on Prashant’s journey from 25 thousand contestants to 125, then 68, and 24 and at last to top ten. It juxtaposted poor economic condition of Prashant’s family that they were living in rent in Tongsoon village on Rs. 1500 a month, with what the prize of 1 crore and sixy lakhs that Prashant would get if he won the competition and with the fame the first Indian Idol got and 70,000 copies of album he sold on the first date. It also informs that Pawan Chamling, minister from Sikkim is sending sms and telling his government workers to support, and make “a Nepali singer an Indian Idol”. What was promoted in this news is a hardworking and dutiful son character. He joined the police force after death of his father, and it also showed that even Nepalis from Ilam were supporting Prashant (Bhattarai 2064 v.s.). In another news published by Nayapatrika, a tabloid daily newspaper in Nepali language on 25 June, we find information on activities of Prashant Tamang fans in Darjeeling. At last it repeated same story of Prashant as a dutiful son and why he had to join the police force (Name not mentioned 2064 v.s.b.). We can take this as the feature of inverted pyramid style of news, where important aspect of the issues are kept in the beginning and the least important one are placed at last. But this repetition helps people to know Prashant and related with his dutiful life and hardship. Though journalists might not have done it deliberately, readers kept on encountering the same fact every day which they gradually take as true. Here I am not arguing that audience are passive. What I am arguing is that they start to relate with the issue when they a person from close angle. And these news used photos in same fashion. It is interesting almost all news contained photos either of himself, his fans or family. These photos exuded his simplicity and innocence and

14 Video available at youtube. Accessed on 18 July 2011.

20 these characteristics also helped in garnering votes for him. Even the video made by Sony ET to recap his journey in Indian Idol, used same characteristics: ‘ek sidhasadha ladka’ or simple boy. And on 26 June and 28 June, Roshan Sawa wrote two news for Annapurna Post. The first of them with the headline, Nepaliko Gaurab Prashant(Pride of Nepali Prashant) had no dateline, so we don’t know whether he wrote this from Darjeeling or not. It contained a quote of Prashant’s sister, Archana Tamang who repeated that it was pride for Nepali people that Prashant had reached in the list of top ten. It has another quote from a musician and singer who claimed that Prashant’s voice was natural (Sawa 2064 v.s.). It is interesting at during the audition, Javed had commented that Prashant was a unusal singer. But now, Nepali media were telling that his voice was natural which also proves that ‘hamro’ singer symbol of Prashant Tamang had turned into ‘ramro’ singer. That means since he is ‘ours’, he is a good singer. This tendency was also found in a letter to editor published on 27 August. The writer argued that Indian Idol was given to a person who as good voice. He said that his competitors had weakness: Amit could only sing romantic songs, Emon Chatterji and Ankita sounds Sonu Nigu and Sunidhi Chauhan. Yet, judges never praised Prashant (Sharma 2064 v.s.). Our man symbol of Prashant Tamang was in the headline of a news published by The Rising Nepal on 2 July 200 and written by Prashun Timilsina. It was called: “Our man in Indian Idol”. This news also repeated features like smilely face, nepali accent, and Nepali-origin of Prashant. It had a quote from a person living in Kathmandu, who said this: That man from Daj has dazzled all Nepalese. We are proud seeing a Nepali performing in the international stage” ”(Timilsina 2007: 7). So, for him, Indian Idol was an international stage and Prashant a Nepali . Due his both ‘hamro’ and ‘ramro’ Prashant images, many campaigns were initiated to support him through voting. These votes and campaigns helped in making Prashant the winner of Indian Ido3 and he himself became new icon of national identity in Nepal. But icon as icon as one flaw as n editorial of Nepali Times put: At one level the Prashant Tamang phenomenon showed the current Nepali craving for a feel-good story, the need for a knight in shining armour who, even if he can't rescue us, will make us feel momentarily proud. At another, it proved the need for national symbols when the motherland itself is being torn apart by centrifugal identity politics. Prashant epitomizes the shared geography, shared history, shared lingua franca of Nepalis no matter what their passport. But he also underlines a flaw in our perception of ourselves and the way Nepaliness has traditionally been defined by hill-centric nationalism.

We wonder if there would be the same interest or excitement in Nepal if, instead of Prashant, an Indian of Nepali madhesi origin was the finalist. Probably not (Nepali Times 2007).

It also shows that national identity Prashant Tamang tried to promote were not of present Nepal, but of Panchayati Nepal.

3.3. Political Economy of Media Globalization and National identity Prashant Phenomenon was the manifestation of money power and national identity. On the one hand it unleashed feeling of shared history, belonging, shared culture and language. On the another hand, the main thrust of Indian idol was to collect more sms votes which would increase revenue for the organizer. Voting was opened after Prashant was on top 13. I have argued it as the crisis of Indian idol 3. In this section we are going to see the coverage on political economy aspect of celebrity making and national identity in Nepali media. Content focued on this issue were few. It is interesting that Indian media also gave less coverage to this issue. What were they busy with, was doing reporting on activities of fans from bothsides of Prashant and Amit Paul, and he find this concern in blogs and websites, and very often they were unhappy since their favorite contestants were out. Neither Indian and Nepali media had shown concern on the compulsory agreement with Sony BMG as a recording artist and others by top ten contestant (Indian Idol 3 2007). On 10 Septermber, Kantipur published three leters to editor, and one of them was critical of Prashant Tamang phenomenon saying it India pride not Nepali pride. This letter had nationalistic feeling as it argued that people were ignoring Nepal Tara, a nepali relality show (Pandit 2064 v.s. ). Even illustration 2 shows that Nepali media gave less coverage to this program. But this letter said nothing about the political economy of reality show. One example of these kinds of articles was Yangesh’s, Prashantma Rastriytako Khoji (Search of nationality). In this article, he argued that reality shows like Indian Idol were not for grooming singers; they were for instant star, who had to increase market for the organizer. He further argued that people who were supporting and sending sms votes in Indian Idol were unknowingly increasing TRP of Indian Television channels (Yangesh 2064 v.s. ). This paltry coverage on political economy was due to the focus of Nepali media people on day to day news which dealt with fan and Prashant Tamang activities. More than, it also prove tendency in Nepali media not delving into media as such.

3.4. Identity Politics In Indian Idol 3’s case identity politics, national identity all intermingle. It is true in case of Darjeeling and Nepal. Prashant not only helped in uniting all people in Darjeeling, it created a platform for a movement for recognition of Gorkhaland. Bimal Gurung who supported the movement for Prashant Tamang ousted Subas Ghising, after Prashant became Indian Idol 3. It is said that people were angry with Ghising from years for Darjeeling’s worsening economic condition. It was given a channel by Prashant,” said Anil Thapa, a teacher in Kurseong to a journalist” and added:

We got upset when Ghisingh was disinterested in the one happy event in the hills after so long.. The hills have been miserable for decades. Drinking water is supplied in Darjeeling once a week. Electricity is erratic, unemployment rampant, corruption high, human rights low, roads still narrow and poverty very wide. The trees are gone, the streams have dried up and only pollution is aplenty. What has compounded the bleak scenario is the utter lack of interest in Kolkata over developments in Ghisingh’s fief.” (Sundas 2008 ).

And that event was Prashant Tamang’s participation in Indian Idol 3. It is said that Ghisingh did not support the movement, instead sacked Bimal Gurung, a member of Ghisingh’s party as a deterrent. He went to Bangkok in a tourism meeting, when people of Darjeeling and other places were sending sms voting for Prashant. And Gurung created a new party called Gorkha Janmukti Morcha after Prashant became Indian idol 3. Nepali print media gave less priority to local politics of Darjeeling. One of few articles mentioned that West Bengal police force was supporting Prashant as they wanted to show others that Bengal police willed to tell others that they could compete in a contest like Indian Idol. They took it as Indian Idol 3 as their pride or indentity (Bhattarai 2064 a). It is interesting that in one news published by Nayapatrka, in 25 June, it was mentioned that “Victory of Prashant, was Victory of Gorkhe”. It shows that people of Darjeeling were promoting identity of Gorkhe not Nepali. In another article, Bharat ma Nepali Bhawana (Nepali Feeling in India), Shrunuti Sing discussed the reason behind Prashant’s cry when a judge praised his singing. She argued that three judges Anu, Javed and Alisha had biases towards Prashant, which was similar to the biases Indians had on West Bengal and he could not bear when the judges praised him. She hoped that this feeling will end in future (Singh 2064 v.s. ). In another article, Dil

Sahani argued what he thought about the victory of two final contestants. According him, the victory of Amit would be the victory of a backward state and the victory of Prashant would be minority backward state (Sahni 2064 v.s). Even when Prashant sang, ‘Bir Gorkhali’, eulogizing Gorkhali instead of Nepali, Nepali media took it as the praise of Nepal and Nepali. For example a news described : “He sang the song of bravery of brave Gorkhas. As he sang the song, all Nepalese might have sung with him” (Timilsina 2007 a). What an emotional writing. Actually this song was popular in Darjeeling and Mantra band produced this song and it was not popular in Nepal. It promoted feeling of Gorkha or Indian Nepali and manifestation of Gorkhaland movement. Nepali media gave less priority to identity politics of Meghalaya. But it was not less important as a journalist from Indian media said this about the importance of Amit Paul Phenomenon in Meghalaya:

When Meghalaya's history is written, it could well be divided into two distinct phases—one before the third Indian Idol contest and another after it. A deep tribal-non-tribal divide, punctuated by killings, riots, and attempts at ethnic cleansing, would mark the first phase. A return to harmony and to the cosmopolitan ethos of the past would signify the second…People were tired of violence, strikes and the pervasive atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust affecting their daily lives and livelihoods. Now, Amit, with his mellifluous voice, stage presence, modest charm and boy-next-door looks, has shown them a way to take forward the process of restoring peace and harmony. Moreover, his success at a national- level competition has catapulted a peripheral state into national consciousness (Mazumdar 2007).

It is interesting that Nepali media never gave a profile of Amit. They never gave a chance to hear his voice nor views of his family. They did not tell that he too was helping people of Northeast India, where conflict ravaged, to unit. But if we go through his blog and other Indian reporting what we find is that he too is hardworking and honest like Prashant. All judges always praised him.15 But Nepali media did not care about it. It seems that it had to do with news value which goes for proximity or sameness. In Amit’s case, he is not of Nepali-origin. But what these coverage did, I argue, was they gave no chance to readers to relate with Amit. Instead what they did was othering Amit Paul by placing reporting which showed Amit in negative light.

15 http://www.indianidolshow.com/2007/06/01/amit-paul-from-shillong-meghalaya/

This was done through two reportings published on 13 and 14 September in kantipur and Nepal Samacharpatra. First news, which Upendra Pokharel wrote, informed about the hardship of Prashant Tamang’s fan in Meghalaya, related to force participation in Amit’s campaign, threat to banish them from the state if Amit won the contest and prevent them from entrying PCO so that they had to send sms for Prashant Tamang from hidings (Pokarel 2064 v.s. ). Similarly in another reporting Ramesh Samdarshi wrote about physical and mental torture, Nepalese were experiencing Meghalaya (Samdarshi 2064 v.s.). It in interesting that In 11 September 2008, Bimal Gurung declared dress code for people in Darjeeling, urging them to wear daura suruwal , chowbandi choli and a cap to show that they were different from West Bengal and hence, they needed a separate state.

Conclusion This paper shows that in the age of media globalization, when global format of television are pursuing localization instead of transnationalization, their main interest is to collect money in the name of audiences participation. Due to localness they could unleash nationalistic feeling and mobilize audiences or actors for different causes. In case of Indian Idol 3, we saw crisis of identity of the reality show itself. Local politicians of finalists especially of Darjeeling cashed in the opportunity and metamorphosed it into establishing base for his power. This actor spearheaded the campaign, which grab attention of Indian and Nepali media. Nepali media gave coverage to it, taking proximity, shared history, language and culture etc into consideration from conventional definition of news value. But while doing this, it gave less thought on the political economy side of the reality show. Instead using old national symbols of language, a nepali cap etc, the symbols of banal nationalism, Nepali media tried to resurrect Prashant Tamang as a new national identity which was seen as the unifying symbol when all units of national identity as religion, monarchy etc were in crisis in Nepal. To conclude this, paper, I think we have to see whole Prashant Tamang phenomenon in Nepali media as the crisis of identity of Indian idol, West Bengal and Nepal, and the drive of global media entertainment player to garner money. It also shows how global media promote nationalism to create market, and how market create nationalism to expand global media economy.

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