Day 40 - 10 Ka Dum

On and off screen I have often tried to find out how contestants answer the questions on 10 ka Dum…

What’s their thought process? Has their interaction with common people given them some understanding of popular opinion? How much do they rely on their intuition? And how seriously do they take the audience poll of those present in the studio…

I found that most contestants depend on their companion and their own gut feeling. Intuition plays a key role and analysis takes a back seat. Most contestants are confused on whether they should keep in mind the mood of the metros or of the entire country including rural India... They often pray when the monitor is traveling up and down in the fast, uncertain rhythm. It is fascinating to watch their reactions as it happens!

I think we Indians pray very often and while praying have you noticed how we close our eyes… so that we may concentrate on our image of God. In our country even scientists and technocrats pray and visit shrines. During the last decade the number of people visiting shrines has increased a whole lot. Have we become more religious or do we simply fear to loose our lot?

Day 39 - 10 Ka Dum

The success of politicians and film stars both depends upon the opinion of the masses. While Politicians face masses once in five years, we film stars face them every Friday. The behavior of common people in cinema houses and polling booths is different, at one place they seek entertainment and at other place they seek good governance. It is the peace in society that increases collections at the Box Office.

It really surprises me that common people by themselves are very peace loving people but when they are on roads, small incidents can make them violent. When they are a part of a crowd, their mentality changes… This mob psychology is very strange. While individuals love peace, mobs become violent.

Individuals form the crowd the mob in cinema halls and here they suspend their sense of disbelief and get lost in the emotions displayed on screen. The unity amidst diversity comes across in the audience reactions in cinema halls. Some scene or song gets applauded from Kashmir to Kanya kumari. As a matter of fact, audience reaction is a barometer of National mood.