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It is a conspiracy, says Channel V

Caught in a predicament of its own making, Channel [V] is desperately seeking ways out of the V Dares You controversy. Blaming its rival, Zee Television for "trying to pin down its TRP ratings", the popular music channel is crying ‘conspiracy’ after the former repeatedly aired the controversial two-minute clip from the V Dares You, which had dared two women students to strip to the bare minimum on Bandra’s Linking Road.

Apart from the public and police, which has arrested six persons from Channel [V] for obscenity, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too voiced its protest by staging a demonstration outside the channel’s office in the city today. This far, six people from the channel have been arrested and released on bail in connection with the programme, which aired on June 4. They have been charged under Sections 4, 6 and 7 of the Indecent Representation of Women Act, 1986, and Sections 110 and 117 of the Mumbai Police Act.

Labelling the protest as "a conspiracy by rival parties" to pin down the channel’s TRP ratings which, they claim, have been steadily soaring ever since it went in for a revamp as "India’s only Youth Channel", Suresh Bala, general manager, Channel [V], India, said today, "This is a media war and Zee Television seems far too interested in it than anyone else."

"Zee TV managed to get hold of the tape which contained the episode and aired the scenes where the girls are doing the strip dance totally out of context, not just once, but throughtout the day. If those are scenes that are against public morality, why did they air them for a total 63 minutes for the whole nation to see? Zee TV is involving political parties to this issue and has completely blown it out of proportion. We are extremely troubled and we are worried about the safety of our employees," said Bala.

"Our target audience is the youth and our production heads approved of the episode under the channel’s programming guidelines before it was aired. While the episode was being shot on March 26, not a single member of the public protested. The traffic police, which was present right there, never seemed to have considered it offensive and after the episode was first aired in April till June 4. We did not receive a single complaint from any viewer. Why is it suddenly an issue? Obviously it is a conspiracy to run us down,’’ he added, pointing at Zee TV as having such intentions. Zee TV had aired a part of the episode on its Zee News channel and aired comments from columnist Shobha De and BJP MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha on the incident.

Channel [V] is now "apologetic" for having "offended public sensibility". They also claim to have pulled the show off the air immediately after they received the call from the police and before they received any written complaint. "We were even ready to apologise to the complainant for offending their sensibilities, but we were dissuaded from doing so," Bala said.

The channel’s first reactionary statement to the press said that the girls who took up the dare for Rs 1,500, had worn clothes which are usually worn in discotheques and gyms.

Meanwhile, as the debate rages, the real ‘‘darers’’ are unavailable for comment. ‘‘They are two Pune University students from Albania, who might have now gone to their homes on holiday or after competing their studies. We are absolutely certain that the girls are not minors because they are studying in the university and are sporting, full-fledgedly adults. We approached them on the road as asked them if they wanted to take the dare. They were only too keen,’’ Choudhury insisted.

He remarked, ‘‘Calling the show off the air will not make a difference to our TRP, because it was just one of our sows, but we are genuinely worried about more uncalled-for protests.’’ But ask Channel [V] whether they will be more careful about their programming content in future, they don’t repent their ‘‘irreverence’’. ‘‘We have full faith in our judgement and don’t regret having produced a show like that,’’ Choudhury said.