Namit Das with a participant in Axe Ur Ex; (bottom) Splitsvilla on MTV has been a runaway hit

The girl hurls the choicest cuss words, hits the boy in front of her a couple of times and then dissolves into tears. The boy, stone-faced, shields his face from the camera and walks out, abusing the girl and nearly getting into a fight with the crew. The camera unwaveringly follows him as he storms out and then comes back to the teary-eyed girl, who faints, unable to cope with the stress of it all. The crew smiles and exchange high-fives. It’s a killer episode, maximum TRPs guaranteed.

Welcome to the world of relationship-based reality shows. Where laying it bare on television is the sure-shot recipe to grab eyeballs. The murkier and messier the better.

“Who doesn’t enjoy watching people washing their dirty linen in public?” asks adman Prahlad Kakkar.

“A relationship, whether it’s yours, mine or anyone else’s, is something that interests all. So why not build a TV show around it,” demands Nikhil Gandhi, business head, UTV Bindass whose popular Emotional Atyachaar — a fidelity test carried out before prying cameras which invariably results in a public break up — is widely regarded as the poster-boy of relationship reality shows.

“When we spoke to college goers and young professionals, we found that the biggest fear among them — more than the fear of exams or the nervousness of career — was whether their partner was cheating on them. Emotional Atyachaar was born to lay bare an issue that is prevalent among the youth, but rarely discussed in the open,” says Gandhi.

The two seasons of Splitsvilla on MTV — where young boys and girls were closeted together to build a relationship — have been TRP toppers.

Leading the way is Channel V, which has traded music for close to half-a-dozen relationship reality formats. “Our core target audience is the 16-24 age group for which the hottest topic of conversation is relationships. Through our research in 22 cities across India, we were able to identify a few hot buttons or youth touchpoints, primary among which was relationships and career,” says Prem Kamath, general manager, Channel V.

So if LoveNet sets up a date on television between two chat friends, then the just-concluded Truth Love or Cash tests real-life couples on whether they would settle for love or choose money! “There is a voyeur hidden in all of us and any concept that deals with human relationships interests the audience,” says TLC host Yudi.

Ahead in the race for TRPs is the channel’s Axe Ur Ex, which helps to publicly humiliate an ex-partner! “Almost everyone fantasises about getting back at a former girlfriend or boyfriend. Why not do it in front of millions?” says show host Namit Das. Roomies — a fiction show on relationships — is also getting in the numbers for the channel.

However, most of these shows have been accused of not knowing where to stop. Kamath insists that the Channel V thinktank has pulled out all the stops to ensure that none of their shows venture into the serious space. “All our relationship-based shows are in the fun and frothy domain and we take a conscious call to not go overboard. Unlike Emotional Atyachaar where people abuse and inappropriate visuals are shown to create a titillating effect, we don’t cross the line and get too personal,” he says.

“I personally don’t like venturing into anyone’s personal space and I had made it clear to the channel that I would not aggressively attack a contestant emotionally,” says Yudi.

Laying bare relationships on television is clearly a tricky domain. “You don’t know what is too less or too much. The intention is not to enjoy or exploit the discomfort of the couple. It’s just two people on the show, but Emotional Atyachaar tells millions in the audience about the telling signs to look out for in their marriage or relationship,” says Gandhi of Bindass, which brought forward the show’s second season from October to August, “on popular demand”.