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for the Kathmandu workshop on 'Creation of Public Meaning during Nepal's Democratic Transition' (4-5 September 2011); DO NOT CITE or QUOTE Resurgence of ‘Nepali National Identity’ in the Age of Identity Politics and Media Globalization: Prashant Tamang’s Performance in Indian Idol 3 and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, 1 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. 2 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 3 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 4 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.