5 Sting Operations We'd Like to See

1 Balasaheb Thackeray and Bahu Smita
Through the nineties, Sena watchers vouch for the fact that access to the Hindu Hriday Samrat was controlled to a large extent by ex-daughter-in-law Smita. Her power gave her confidence to continue living at the Thackeray residence, Matoshree, even after the end of her marriage to his son. She now says she feels stifled and suffocated there. Our sting could begin when she returns to get her luggage.

2 Tracking Down a Crooked Reporter Who is on the Take
This is one scoop a lot of readers and viewers would enjoy. Holier-than-thou scribes make daily headlines out of the foibles and follies of other mortals (think Tiger Woods), but aren’t above some less-than-upright behaviour themselves. To atone for some of this, we’d like to pull this one on our own tribe. Find a corrupt reporter misusing his journalistic privileges and catch him in the act.

3 Kingfisher Calendar Shoot
We want to know who hits on whom at the shoots for India’s version of the famous Pirelli calendars. The very hot 2010 version was shot months ago at Koh Samui in Thailand, in Udaipur and on board Vijay Mallya’s superyacht. Wouldn’t you want a heads up on the next one? We have a bunch of volunteers to carry out this one. Get in line, we say; we’re doing this ourselves.

Image: Abhijeet Keni

4 In the India TV Edit Rooms
Where do all those fantastic stories come from? How are they strung together? The past-life reunions, the live telephonic interviews with cornered terrorists and most of all aliens abducting Indians from the hinterland. Purely from journalistic curiousity, we’d love a closer look at their story making machine. Need ideas for a fiction special coming up soon.

5 A Reality Show
Yes, much recursion. A sting on something that is, really, just a big, stage-managed sting strung over several episodes, albeit with willing victims. We want to do the behind the show. As the public episodes unveil on television, this sting could bring out the true undercurrents episode by episode. Won’t be an easy one to pull, but could make fascinating viewing. Now let’s see: Big Boss? Rahul Mahajan ka Swayamvar? The past-life regression thing?

(Compiled by: Cuckoo Paul, Rohin Dharmakumar, Shloka Nath, S. Srinivasan)