Kannada news channels appear to have the Julius Caesar syndrome when it comes to covering aliens. Shakespeare’s eponymous play is titled after the Roman emperor, but the man is hardly present in the play. Caesar only has a couple of cameos including the one where he is killed and says “Et tu, Brute?”
Karnataka’s Kannada news channels appear to have been inspired by this technique of Shakespeare’s when they cover ‘alien sightings’ – the news report always talks about people ‘finding’ aliens, but of course, they are never there in the frame. (Must be camera shy.)
The most recent such story was on Suvarna News 24x7. Suvarna reported that aliens were ‘found in Mysuru’. According to the news report telecast on Friday, people of Kanagaalu village in Periyapatna taluk of Mysuru district had seen aliens and the whole village is now living in fear.
Women farmers who were removing weeds in the fields on Friday afternoon had seen aliens dressed in orange clothes fly towards them and photograph them before flying away again. Sadly, the women did not have any cameras to capture these exclusive pictures.
Watch the video here:
In May, TV 9 Kannada had telecast a 20-minute segment on flying creatures (not birds you dodo) being spotted in Nelluru village of Andhra Pradesh, which had terrified villagers. Villagers told TV9 that five people had died after seeing the creatures, and that is why everybody was scared.
The news report was titled “Akasha Bhoota: Flying aliens spotted in Andhra Pradesh, five dead” (Akasha bhoots means sky ghost)
In dramatic style, the news anchor said: Bird-men are flying in the skies / five people have died after seeing these strange creatures / Fear has made the village helpless / The aliens have brought sleepless nights to the villagers. It sounds more compelling in the anchor’s Kannada rhyme:
Akashadalli haraduthiddare pakshi-manavaru
Vichitra jeevigalannu kandu prana bittavaru aivaru
Tattaraguthiddante aa gramagalu kangalu
Alliya janara niddregedisive alien-galu
Watch the video here:
If you listen carefully, here too, the aliens have been inspired by Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and go to great lengths to get into their character: they never make an appearance. Either the news anchors can teach Marlon Brando the real meaning of method acting, or someone should recommend personality development classes for them.
Any which way… there’s more on Telugu news channels if anybody’s interested. Just search YouTube. There’s some fascinating stuff. Who knows, maybe Telugu news channels don’t have the Julius Caesar syndrome.