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Arts & Reviews |
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Feature |
Showtime in Bhutan
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| Druk Superstar, Bhutan’s idol-esque talent show, is a celebration of the old and an opportunity for the modern and upwardly mobile |
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Published : 1 September 2011 |
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COURTESY BHUTAN OBSERVER |
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| Karma Phuntsho is a popular choice among
Bhutanese women voters.
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T'S JUST 20 MINUTES TO SHOWTIME. The studio is a hive of activity: at one end makeup artists attend to the drooping quiffs of the handful of middle-aged men sitting behind a semi-circular desk. They are the judges. At the other, stagehands pull at the lighting rig to make sure it is all directed squarely at the stage. On either side sit the contestants, nervously fidgeting |
as they await their turn, for on live television there is no room for mistakes.
It could be anywhere in the world, such has been the reach of the cultural juggernaut that is the Idol-era television singing competition, complete with its studio audiences and token harsh judge, strobe lighting and legions of fans. And here too in the once-reclusive Bhutan, the format is hugely popular. Its homegrown talent show is called Druk Superstar—in the local language Dzongkha, Druk is the word for Bhutan—and has everyone glued to their television sets for six hours each weekend—three on Saturday and three on Sunday—for close to five months.
The set is modest by international standards: the stage is on a raised platform draped in red carpet and a flimsy sheet of plastic is printed with the show’s name and logo, as well as the thunder dragon emblem that is one of Bhutan’s national symbols, against a bright blue background. There are no flashy designer outfits; rather, everyone is in traditional Bhutanese garb—the gho for men, kira for women. Audience members sit, primly and quietly, on plastic garden seats, arranged into rows.
But regardless of its simplicity, Druk Superstar is the biggest entertainment program on Bhutanese television. “Well, because it’s the only one,” chuckles a staff member at the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), the country’s only national channel that carries the program. There are no official television ratings, but each week the BBS gets between 80,000 and 100,000 SMS votes: this, in a country of just 750,000.
The show has even struck a chord with rural Bhutanese. Outside the main cities, most still follow ruggedly traditional agrarian lifestyles and many live far from developed regions. “We hear about people from rural areas who would walk for a day to get to a village or a town, where they can find a television,” says BBS’ news editor Deki Choden Dorji.
“If you go out into the town now you’ll find it empty,” says one contestant, Karma Phuntsho. “Everybody is near a television set.”
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RUK SUPERSTAR is the third incarnation of the show. First there was Bhutan Star, then Druk Star, both of which showcased unknown talent. Druk Superstar, however, takes the show to a new level with contestants who are already working in the country’s fledgling entertainment industry. Think Top Chef Masters, or Dancing With the Stars—although |
instead of washed-up stars striving to stay in the game, Druk Superstar contestants are trying to get ahead. For some, it might be the goal of having the music they compose heard by a wider audience, and for others, it’s the chance to be recognised on the streets and in the bars of Thimphu.
Phuntsho, 23, hails from Trashigang, a town in the country’s remote east. Now he works in the film industry as a cameraman.
“Most of the people here, some have acted in movies, some of them are directors, some producers, so they are already in the industry,” he tells me.
| COURTESY BHUTAN OBSERVER |
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Minzung Lhamo, a contestant from Bhutan’s non-Dzongkha speaking south. |
Why is he here? “To win. To be famous,” he says, somewhat shyly. Phuntsho hopes that Druk Superstar will propel him into the stratosphere of Bhutanese entertainment. “I want people to recognise me.”
Not all have the same ambition. Another contestant, Sherab Dorji, 28, works as a traditional physician, or drungtsho, dispensing health advice based on centuries-old knowledge. But more relevantly, he is also a music composer, and hopes that Druk Superstar will help get his work out there.
“I joined Druk Superstar not to compete for the superstar title, but to get some publicity for my music,” says Dorji.
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