Zee TV - Sa Re Ga Ma Pa

.

.

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, formerly known as Sa Re Ga Ma before Shaan's debut, is a musical contest shown on Zee TV.

.

'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge' is one of the oldest and the most reputed reality show on Indian television. This is one show, which brings into limelight the real talent.
.

The first episode aired on May 1, 1995 and was hosted by Sonu Nigam; the show was extremely popular at that time.

.
From 1999 till 2001, the show was hosted by the Bangash brothers, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, sons of legendary sarod-player Amjad Ali Khan.

.
After that, Shaan started hosting the show. Later, the name "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" became known as the "brand name" of the series and completely changed the concept of the show to include public interaction through voting. This was first done in 2005, when the old show concept was completely scraped and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 was introduced.

.
After Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005, Gajendra Singh departed from Zee TV and joined hands with Star Network, along went some others like Shaan. The concept rights are not clear yet, but Zee TV claims rights on the format of the shows originally made for Zee TV, like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and Antakshari.

In February 2007, Real Media - Zee TV in Dubai, produced and started airing Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Middle East - Pakistan Challenge 2007 for the Middle East and Pakistan viewers based on the original format of the show, without Gajendrra Singh.

.
Zee TV Telugu has also started "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" in 2007 andLI successfully run 2 series named "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Seniors" and "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs" and has started a new series "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Super Seniors" for aged group above 35 years.

.
The last episode aired in the year of 2007 and was hosted by Aditya Narayan; the show was extremely popular till now. The third installment Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009 is being aired and premiered on July 4th. Aditya Narayan returns as the host with three new mentors, who join Himesh Reshammiya.

HOT Television Updates @ Click Here

.

The most notable and prominent singers that emerged from the contest are listed below:

.

Avdhoot Gupte
Priya bhattacharya
Shreya Ghosal
Nihira Joshi
Sanjeevani Bhelande who won the championship in 1995
Hamsika Iyer - Runner up of the championship in 1995
Vijay Prakash who participated in 1999
Kunal Ganjawala who participated in 1997 and again in 1998
Shekhar Ravjiani who participated as a contestant and eventually became a famous music director and a judge on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007
Bela Shende who emerged as winner of Mega Final.
Sanjeevani who became renowned singer.

.

Cast
Sonu Nigam- Host (1995-1999)
Amaan Ali Bangash- Host (1999-2001)
Ayaan Ali Bangash- Host (1999-2001)
Shaan- Host (2002-2006)
Aditya Narayan - Host (2007-Present)

Indian Idol (Sony Entertainment Television)

.

Indian Idol is a popular television show on Indian television, a singing talent contest to determine the best undiscovered young singer in the country. It is based on the international Idol series format, launched by UK show Pop Idol.

.
The program airs two back-to-back prime-time shows a week: the first night features an hour of performances while the second night features an elimination. The show is produced and broadcasted on Sony TV, India and is coproduced with FremantleMedia (makers of the Idol series), which is owned by the German media corporation Bertelsmann.
.
.

Season One (2004-2005)
The winner of the first season of Indian Idol was Abhijeet Sawant.
The last 12 finalists are thought to have a good chance of finding a place in the Indian music industry and films. For example, Rahul Saxena, who failed to make it to the top 6, has been offered a song by Indian Idol judge and director, Farah Khan, in her new film Om Shanti Om and Amit Tandon got work in a new serial from Ekta Kapoor and Balaji Telefilms. Amit Sana, Rahul Vaidya and Prajakta Shukre have released their solo albums.

.

ContestantsIndian Idol Finalists (with dates of elimination)

Abhijeet Sawant - Winner

Amit Sana - Runner-up

Rahul Vaidya - February 18 (dates of elimination)

Prajakta Shukre - February 12

Ravinder Ravi - February 5

Aditi Paul - January 28

Mukesh Kumar Pancholi - January 21

Harish Moyal - January 14
Amit Tandon - January 7

Rahul Saxena - December 31

Vishal Kothari - December 24

Priyanka Venkateshwaran - Dropped out

HOT Television Updates @ Click Here

.
Season Two (2005-2006)

The winner of the second season of Indian Idol was Sandeep Acharya.
Many of the top 10 contestants have commenced their singing careers. Neha Kakkar has rendered a song for a pop album where she sings "Chandani Raatein". Yashashree Bhave has tied the knot and settled down, teaching students music at her home. Panna Gill is doing stage shows and has just released a solo album. Sixth place contestant Meenal Jain has done stage shows with Sonu Nigam and also received an offer from Anu Malik. In addition, Antara Mitra, a regular favorite of Anu Malik, has also been presented an offer from many music directors and also is recording her solo album. Antara also gets to sing a duet with the Indian Idol in his album for being the top female contestant.Antara also sung a duet with Sonu Nigam in Speed. Monali Thakur, has sung for Preity Zinta in the movie Jaaneman (2006), as promised by Anu Malik. There is also an album being made with the top five (which consists of Sandeep Acharya, N. C. Karunya, Antara Mitra, Anuj Sharma, and Amey Date)
.
Monali thakur also sang the super hit song of the year "zara zara touch me touch me " from the film race which music director was pritam and the song was an big hit on the bollywood industry and it was the biggest hit by an new comer

ContestantsIndian Idol Finalists (with dates of elimination)

Sandeep Acharya - Winner

N. C. Karunya - Runner-up

Anuj Sharma - April 4

Amey Date - March 14

Antara Mitra - March 7

Meenal Jain - February 28

Ravi Tripathi - February 21

Panna Gill - February 14

Monali Thakur - February 7

Neha Kakkar - January 31

Jolly Das - Dropped out becouse of Medical problem (to be in season 3)

Yashashree Bhave - January 24

Sagar Sawarkar - January 17
.

HOT Television Updates @ Click Here

Season Three (2007)
The winner of the Third season was Prashant Tamang, who hails from Darjeeling in West Bengal. The runner-up, Amit Paul was from Shillong, Meghalaya.

.
Voting count of Indian Idol 3 Finale has broken many records, around 7 crore (70 million) votes were received.Prashant Tamang has cut a solo album as per contract with Sony. He also conducted a world tour of shows. Suhit Gosain (Top 14) appeared in a successful KitKat chocolate advertisement. Four finalists namely; Chang, Suhit, Parleen & Abhishek entered into a contract with Sony BMG and cut an album named 'Tu To Na Aayi' as a Band of Boys named "F4". Videos of the title song and another number 'Udd Chale' have been released. F4 was also declared 'The Next Big Thing' on 'V' channel. F4 and most of the finalists have done shows in India and abroad. Emon Chaterjee and Deepali Kishore sung a song 'I Love You" for movie 'Don Muthuswami'. The song is composed by Anu Malek. Chang & Deepali are anchoring the Indian Idol 4 auditions along with Suhit, Parleen & Abhishek.
.

ContestantsIndian Idol Finalists (with dates of elimination)

Prashant Tamang - Winner

Amit Paul - Runner-up

Emon Chatterjee - September 8

Ankita Mishra - September 1

Meiyang Chang - August 25

Puja Chatterjee - August 18

Deepali Kishore - August 11

Abhishek Kumar - August 4

Parleen Singh Gill - July 28

Charu Semwal - July 21

Smita Adhikari - July 14

Jolly Das - July 7

Richa Aneja - June 30

.

HOT Television Updates @ Click Here

Celebrity Judges
Several celebrity judges have been on the show to comment on the performances and to inspire and suggest constructive criticism for the singers.

Season 1 & 2
They include Juhi Chawla, Priyanka Chopra, Karan Johar, Kareena Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, Salman Khan, [Arif ali] Sohail Khan, Zayed Khan, Diya Mirza, Dino Morea, , Vivek Oberoi, Amisha Patel, Mallika Sherawat, Shilpa Shetty, Tabu and Preity Zinta. Kajol was invited to the finale of both season one and two. Hollywood actor Will Smith made a special appearance to offer his advice to the finalists of season two. Contestant N. C. Karunya aided Will to sing a verse of Eh, kya bolte tu? from Ghulam. In addition to actors, playback singers Sunidhi Chauhan, Kailash Kher, and season one winner Abhijeet Sawant were all invited to judge.
.
Season 3
The list of celebrity judges that appeared for season three included many more individuals that were involved in the music industry. However, there were still appearances of actors as well. Season three also introduced Indian Idol Roobaroo, a thirty minute "talk show" format program that allowed the remaining contestants of that week to sit down and chat with host Mini Mathur. On several occasions they were joined by celebrity guests.

The celebrity guests of Indian Idol 3 are:
Usha Uthup, John Abraham and Bipasha Basu for II3 Gala round on Saturday, September 15, 2007
Adnan Sami for II3 Gala round on Friday, September 7, 2007
Sonu Nigam for II3 Gala round on Friday, August 17, 2007
Soniya Mehra for II3 Robaroo on Thursday, August 16, 2007
Kailash Kher for II3 Result on Saturday, August 11, 2007
Anil Kapoor Guest Appearance on Friday, August 10, 2007
Ajay Jadeja Guest Appearance on Friday, August 10, 2007
Ganesh Hegde for II3 Robaroo Thursday, August 9, 2007
Ila Arun for II3 Gala round on Friday, August 3, 2007
Ritesh Deshmukh for Indian Idol 3 Robaroo Thursday, July 26, 2007
Govinda Ahuja for Gala round on Friday, July 20, 2007
Shabana Azmi for Gala round on Friday, July 13, 2007
Zayed Khan for Gala round on Friday, June 22, 2007
Zubeen Garg (date unknown)
.

HOT Television Updates @ Click Here

Season 4
Indian Idol Season 4 registration began on April 1, 2008. The show proposes that auditions will take place in Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Gwalior and Lucknow, with the possibility of other cities being added in the future. The fourth season will see Anu Mallik and Javed Akthar on the hot seats as they take judges' chair once again for the show. New to this season, singer Kailash Kher and Indian actress Sonali Bendre will replace the newest additions to the judges panel Udit Narayan and Alisha Chinai respectively, who both only judged for season three of Indian Idol.

.
Audition of Indian idol 4 in Ahmedabad: May 7 & 8th
Audition of Indian idol 4 in Amritsar: May 19 & 10th
Audition of Indian idol 4 in Bangalore: May 12 & 13th
Audition of Indian idol 4 in Guwahati: May 13 & 14th
Audition of Indian idol 4 in Kolkata: May 20th
Audition of Indian idol 4 in Varanasi: May 16 & 17th
Audition of Indian idol 4 in Delhi: 23 May

.
The final 100 contestants are slated to be chosen between June and July 2008, the final 30 by October 2008. A special "Wild Card" episode will take place on or about November 2008. The Grand Finale of season 4 is set to take place on or about February 2009 where the fourth Indian Idol will be selected by public vote and presented via a "Live" recorded performance.

Nach Baliye - Star One & Star Plus

.

Nach Baliye is an annual series reality dance show on the Indian STAR Plus channel.. Its contestants are couples who are generally TV stars in their own right, often from the Television industry.

.

The show has the unique concept of celebrity couples competing against one another. Major names in the television industry were given a platform to showcase another side of their persona.

..

Judges
CHOREOGRAPHERS:
Saroj Khan (Seasons 1,2)
Vaibhavi Merchant (Season 3)

ACTORS:
Malaika Arora Khan (Seasons 1,2)
Isha Koppikar (Seasons 3)

DIRECTORS:
Farhan Akhtar (Season 1)
Kunal Kohli (Season 2)
David Dhawan (Season 3)

.

Promos
Amir Rizvi is a writer who has written the launch promos of Nach Baliye 1&2, for Nach Baliye 3 he has done some promos and AV. television actor. Monica Nair Head of on air promos has directed the Promos for Nach Baliye 1,2&3, Jaya Peter has won promax awards for Nach Baliye. Other promo producers involved in the promos & AV of Nach Baliye are Girish, Tabish, Rakesh & Jaya Peter

..
Hosts
Sangeeta Ghosh (Season 1)
Shabbir Ahluwalia (Season 1)
Sachin Pilgaonkar (Season 2)
Supriya Pilgaonkar (Season 2)
Hussain Kuwajerwala (Season 3)
Tina Kuwajerwala (Season 3)
Other jodis also participated in hosting the show.

Nach Baliye : Season 1

Sachin - Supriya Pilgaonkar - Winners
Poonam Narula Goyal - Manish Goyal (Runners Up)
Manini Mishra - Mihir Mishra (Eliminated: Episode 2)
Neeru - Amit Sadh (Eliminated: Episode 4)
Archana Puran Singh - Parmeet Sethi (Eliminated: Episode 6)
Shilpa Saklani - Apurva Agnihotri (Eliminated: Episode 5)
Rohit Roy - Mansi Roy (Eliminated: Episode 1)
Delnaz Paul - Rajiv Paul (Eliminated: Episode 7)
Rajeshwari - Varun Badola (Eliminated: Episode 8)
Sai - Shakti (Eliminated Episode 3)

.

Guests
Shahid Kapoor
Chandana Sharma
Amit Khanna
Madhuri Dixit
John Abraham
Bipasha Basu
Shahrukh Khan
.
Nach Baliye : Season 2
Nach Bailye 2 started on 25 September 2006 and ended on 18 December 2006, crowning Tina and Hussain as winners.
Judges
Farhan Akhtar was replaced by Kunal Kohli, due to his new movie Don - The Chase Begins Again. Saroj Khan and Malaika Arora Khan remain the same judges for Nach Baliye 2.
Hosts : For every episode in Nach Baliye 2, a new host from Nach Baliye one will be presented. Sachin & Supriya were the hosts for the first episode that was telecast on 25 September 2006. Rohit & Mansi were the hosts for the second episode telecast on 2 October 2006.Mihir and Manini were the hosts for the third episode telecast on 9 October 2006 whilst Amit & Neeru were the hosts for the fourth episode telecast on 16 October 2006. Rajiv & Delnaaz were the hosts for the fifth episode telecast on 23 October 2006 whilst Sangeeta and Shabir were the hosts of the sixth episode on 30 October 2006. The seventh episode to be broadcasted on 06 November 2006 where one of the five couples who had previously been evicted will be gain a chance to re-enter in the WILD CARD entry round hosted by Varun and Rajeshwari. Sangeeta and Shabir were the hosts for the eight episode telecast on 13 November 2006 and ninth episode telecast on 20 November 2006. Shakti and Sai were the hosts of the tenth episode telecase on 27 November 2006. Apoorva and Shilpa were the hosts of the eleventh episode telecast on 04 December 2006. Manish and Poonam were the hosts of the twelfth episode telecast on 11 December 2006. Shabir and Sangeeta were hosts for the Mega Final telecast on 18 December 2006, with Rajiv Paul and guest appearance mady by Sachin & Supriya.

Couples
(Jodi No. 01) - Narayani and Gaurav were eliminated on 09th October 2006.
(Jodi No. 02) - Gouri and Yash were the runner-ups on 18th December 2006.
(Jodi No. 03) - Shweta K and Manav were eliminated on 27th November 2006.
(Jodi No. 04) - Shweta and Raja were eliminated on 23rd October 2006, re-entered on 13th November 2006 and evicted on 20th November 2006.
(Jodi No. 05) - Ketki and Rasik were eliminated on 02nd October 2006.
(Jodi No. 06) - Gurdeep and Arjun were eliminated on 30th October 2006.
(Jodi No. 07) - Gauri and Hiten were eliminated on 04th December 2006.
(Jodi No. 08) - Tina and Hussain won Nach Baliye 2 on 18th December 2006.
(Jodi No. 09) - Keerti and Sharad were eliminated on 16th October 2006.
(Jodi No. 10) - Tanaaz and Bhaktyaar were eliminated on 11th December 2006.

Theme of Rounds
Week 01 (25th September 2006) - Introductory round
Week 02 (02nd October 2006) - Village Dance Round
Week 03 (09th October 2006) - Comedy Dance Round
Week 04 (16th October 2006) - Western Dance Round
Week 05 (23rd October 2006) - Wedding Dance Round
Week 06 (30th October 2006) - Romantic Dance Round
Week 07 (06th November 2006) - Wild Card Round
Week 08 (13th November 2006) - Choreographers' Choice Round
Week 09 (20th November 2006) - Regional Spice Round
Week 10 (27th November 2006) - Solo Dance Round
Week 11 (04th December 2006) - Couples' Choice Round
Week 12 (11th December 2006) - Semi-Finals Round
Week 13 (18th December 2006) - Mega-Finals Round

.
Nach Baliye : Season 3
Nach Bailye 3 started on 21 September 2007 and ended on 22 December 2007, crowning Sanjeeda and Aamir as winners. Winners Jodi No. 7: Sanjeeda Sheikh - Aamir Ali Aamir and Sanjeeda jodi no. 7 were the underdogs and with their superb performances and charming personalities, went on to win the NB3 title and also the hearts of the people as highest audience votes made them clinch the trophy in the finale.

Hosts
Hussain Kuwajerwala and Tina

Judges
Isha Koppikar
David Dhawan
Vaibhavi Merchant

Participants
Jodi No. 1: Sweta Keswani - Alexx O' Neil (Eliminated on November 17th)
Jodi No. 2: Karan Patel - Amita Chandekar (Eliminated on December 15th with Jodi No. 8)
Jodi No. 3: Rakhi Sawant - Abhishek Awasthi ( Runners Up )
Jodi No. 4: Shakti Kapoor - Shivangi Kapoor (Quit on October 6th)
Jodi No. 5: Amita Sethi - Vikas Sethi (Eliminated on October 13th)
Jodi No. 6: Karan Grover - Kavita Kaushik (Eliminated on October 20th)
Jodi No. 7: Sanjeeda Sheikh - Aamir Ali ( Winners)
Jodi No. 8: Kashmira Shah - Krishna Abishek (Eliminated on December 15th with Jodi No. 2, Second Runners Up)
Jodi No. 9: Kiran Janjani - Ritu Janjani(Eliminated on September 28th)
Jodi No. 10:Pooja Bedi - Hanif Hilal (Eliminated on October 27th)
Jodi No. 11:Indraneil Sengupta- Barkha Bisht (Wildcard Jodi) (November 23rd) (Eliminated on December 2nd)
.
Elimination
Jodi No. 1: Sweta Keswani - Alexx O' Neil (Eliminated on November 17th)
Jodi No. 2 - Karan Patal (Eliminated on December 15th)
Jodi No. 4: Shakti Kapoor - Shivangi Kapoor (Quit on October 6th)
Jodi No. 5: Amita Sethi - Vikas Sethi (Eliminated on October 13th)
Jodi No. 6: Karan Grover - Kavita Kaushik (Eliminated on October 20th)
Jodi No. 8: Kashmira Shah - Krushna Abhishek (Eliminated on December 15th, Second Runners Up)
Jodi No. 9: Kiran Janjani - Ritu Janjani(Eliminated on September 28th
.
Special
No Elimination In Round - 3 ( Ched Chhad).
Shakti Kapoor & his wife Quit NB3.
Choreographer of Jodi no. 08(Kashmira & Krishna) Hospitalized.
In Episode 7, there is a special dancing couple from Indonesia. Kinaryosih and Wawan.
Episode 7 was on Diwali night which featured Om Shanti Om Celebrations.
Two Eliminations in one night on December 15th.
Jodi No. 3 & 7 were the Finalists of Nach Baliye
.
Guests
Episode - 1 Salman Khan and Govinda
Episode - 2 Jimmy Shergill and Neha Dhupia
Episode - 3 Rahul Khanna and Udita Goswami
Episode - 4 Shiney Ahuja and Vidya Balan
Episode - 5 Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Amrita Arora
Episode - 6 Farah Khan, Deepika Padukone
Episode - 7 Shahrukh Khan
Episode - 8 John Abraham, Bipasha Basu
Episode - 9 Madhuri Dixit, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kunal Kapoor
Episode - 10 Madhuri Dixit
Episode - 12 Dia Mirza
Grand Finale Salman Khan

Fame Gurukul

.

Fame Gurukul is one of the most popular prime-time shows on Indian television. The Sony Entertainment Television(India) program is produced by the same team that produced Indian Idol. The premise of the show is to select a pair of India's best singers/performers.

.
It is based on the Spanish/French Operación Triunfo/Star Academy format of Endemol, better known in English under the UK title Fame Academy; in Indian terms, it is essentially a mixture of Indian Idol and Big Brother (TV series). The show started out with 16 contestants living in a musical performance academy (Gurukul). Every week (normally) one contestant is voted out of the show, and so on until two will remain in the end, who will receive various prizes (recording contracts, cars, etc.).

.

Results : Qazi Touqeer & Ruprekha Banerjee Winners

.
On 20 October 2005, the final show of Fame Gurukul was broadcast in which the final three contestants - Qazi Touqeer, Rex D'Souza and Ruprekha Banerjee battled it for the top spots. After much waiting and various shows in between, the results were finally announced. Qazi Touqeer, the favourite was one of the winners, while Ruprekha Banerjee made up the pair with him.

Prizes
The Fame Gurukul Fame Jodi will receive a Rs. 1 crore music contract from Sony along with a Maruti Alto each.

.

Rounds
The show is divided into many rounds for each week:
Gala - All the contestants perform on Stage, and up to four contestants are put into the "Danger Zone" by the Jury, and one is saved by the Faculty.

Lamhe - A retrospective of the previous week, with highlights and some more details Academy Main 24 Ghantai - "Reality" portion of the show, covers various goings-on in the Gurukul Academy Ran bhumi - The contestants remaining in the danger zone perform once more for the audience, however, the voting begins from the gala itself, so some of the audience results would not have reflected the ranbhumi performances.

.
Aap Ka Faisla - The National audience votes to save one of the contestants, and then the safe and saved contestants save one of the two contestants remaining in the Danger Zone. The other contestant then leaves the show. If there is a tie, then the Top Student for the week can reinforce his or her vote or change to the other contestant.

2005
Contestants
Ruprekha Banerjee - Winner
Qazi Touqeer - Winner
Rex D'Souza
Arpita Mukherjee
Sandeep Batra
Arijit Singh
Monica Gadgil
Shamit Tyagi
Gurpreet Kaur
Deepshikha Sharma
Mona Bhatt
Amit Jadhav
Kirti Sagatia
Anubhav Suman
Deepak Singh Meher
Chhavi Sodhani

Faculty

Head Mistress : Ila Arun
Music : Padma Wadkar, Praŝant A Samadhar
Dance : Bosco, Caesar
Fitness : Deepika Mehta

Judges

Jury Members
Javed Akhtar - Lyricist / Screenplay witer / Poet
Kay Kay - Singer
Shankar Mahadevan - Singer / Composer

Celebrity Judges
Occasionally a celebrity judge is called on the show to comment on the performances and to inspire the singers.Following is a list of special judges who appeared on Fame Gurukul :-
Karan Johar
Bipasha Basu and John Abraham
Diya Mirza
Anil Kapoor
Alka Yagnik
Madhavan
Shreya Ghoshal
Alisha Chinoy
Aftab Shivdasani
Bhumika Chawla

Presenters
Mandira Bedi
Manav Gohil

TV Production
Anupama Mandloi - Executive Producer, Sony Entertainment Television India
Paul Coueslant - Consultant Executive Producer, Endemol International
Nikhil Alva - Series Producer, Miditech

STAR Voice of India

.

Star Voice of India was an Indian Television singing competition that premiered on 18 May 2007 and ended on 24 November 2007. It was the first Indian singing competition produced by STAR Plus. The show was directed by Gajendra Singh, creator of the famous Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series and also featured judges that were on the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series, Aadesh Srivastav, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Alka Yagnik, Lalit Pandit and Jatin Pandit. Shaan hosted SVOI and has left Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.

.
The Grand Finale was held on 24 November 2007. Ishmeet Singh was the winner and Harshit Saxena was the runner-up. From the South Zone, Harshit received 55% of the votes; in the East Zone, he received 52% of the votes and from the West Zone he received 60% of the votes. However, counting the North Zone votes, Ishmeet won. Also, Abhaas won the Jury Award.

.
The prizes offered to the winner are:- 1. A contract for personal album with Big Music 2. A Chevrolet Car

.
Locations
The Auditions were held in the following cities in India each between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Kolkata: Swabhumi 89 C, Maulana Abdul Kalam Avenue (700054) - 29 April
Mumbai: Bhavans College, Munshi Nagar, Dadabhai Road, Andheri West - 4 May
Indore: Hotel Fortune Land Mark, Vijaynagar, Indore - 5 May
Delhi: Shankarlal Hall Delhi University Main Campus - 11 May
Jaipur: Jai Club, Mahavir Marg, C Scheme, Jaipur - 12 May
Lucknow: Ravindralaya Auditorium, Charbagh, Lucknow - 18 May
.
Structure of auditions
Auditions for the show were held in the Indian cities shown above. Judges had then finally chosen 17 contestants out of the thousands that auditioned and the 17 contestants performed on the first two episodes of the show.
.
The audition process was not professional at all, and the contestants who were well connected with Gajendra Singh were promoted to higher ranks within the show. Shweta, a fabulous singer from Canada, winner of Best Singer in North America by Sangam Kala Group, was invited by Gajendra Singh to participate in Voice of India. However, she was frustrated by the lack of integrity and the sort of mental torture that many contestants went through and decided to split. She was then selected to represent Sunsilk Gang of Girls and is currently performing at different shows in Canada.
.
Shortcut to auditions
In addition, there was another "shorter" way to audition from May 1, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. to May 10, 2007 at 11:59 p.m. that required the participant to be a subscriber and registered user of Hutchison Essar Telecom Limited ("Hutch"). The participant had to call 12399 from their Hutch mobile number and follow the instructions that required the participant to sing a song from their phone and asked personal details that would be recorded. If the participant didn't follow all the instructions given to them, the participant's entry would have be null and void. Inaudible and unclear entries would also not have been accepted.
.
The participant was only allowed to sing Hindi songs with a duration of up to 60 seconds. If the song went beyond 60 seconds, the song would not have been considered while judging the talent of the participant.
.
Of all the participants that entered, the producers and representatives listened to a hundred randomly selected entries that were received during the contest and selected 5 winning participants that were believed to have the best voice among those who entered.
After five contestants were chosen, they were finally eligible to directly participate in the official auditions of the show held in Lucknow without having to wait in the queue for the auditions.
.
Prizes
The prizes offered to the winner are:- 1. A contract for personal album with Big Music 2. A Chevrolet Car
.
Apathy of Judges
This contest has not been far from inaccurate judgment by jury. Basis of selection of jury are not consistent with the criteria used for judging performances. Jury members like composers Jatin and Lalit Pandit have been observed to accuse young performers of trying to copy voices of legendary singers on several occasions. However it can't be ignored that these jury members themselves have gained fame by plagiarizing other's work. Judge Aadesh Shrivastav began to use increasingly insulting comments towards the 'Prithvi' Team. In example when Arshpreet was voted out by the public, he commented that Arshpreet had not forgotten any songs or done any drama. This was clearly directed towards Abhilasha of the Prithvi team who had forgotten a song during the past performance and was not given a chance to redeem herself. The Agni also used the professional voice of Sunidhi Chauhan to aid two of their singers in their songs, while Prithvi did not. But over the times all the judges have proved to be supportive and confidant irrespective of which team the contestant belongs to. Alka supported Harshit belonging to the other team (Prithvi) when he forgot lyrics in Sanjay Dutt's episode. Latin & Aadesh also praised Abhilasha (prithvi) on her various superb performances.

.
Amul Star Voice of India (Star Plus) : Winner Ishmit Singh
Gajendra Singh shifted his famous show Voice of India to Star Plus as Amul Star Voice of India. The show is still being hosted by Shaan and the panel of Judges is still the same as Jatin-Lalit, Aadesh Shrivastav, Alka Yagnik and Abhijeet Bhattacharya. Auditions were held in many cities under the supervision of these five judges. Finally they got last 32 contestants who were again tested and they finally got 14 but as they wanted last 12 so they again tested them.


.
.
.

Contestants
Contestants are in reverse chronological order of elimination.
Ishmeet Singh - Ludhiana, Punjab (Winner) & Harshit Saxena - Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (Runner-up)
Abhas Joshi - Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh (Jury's Choice) (Wildcard entry)
Toshi Sabri - Jaipur, Rajasthan (Wildcard entry)
Mohammed Irfan - Hyderabad,
Priyani Vani - Indore, Madhya Prades(Wildcard entry)
Abhilasha Venkatachalam - Pune, Maharashtra (Jury's Choice-Female)*
Sumitra Iyer - Mumbai, Maharashtra
Mirande Shah - Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Arshpreet - Ludhiana, Punjab
Prantik Sur - Kolkata, West Bengal
Prantika Mukherjee - Kolkata, West Bengal
.
Galas
In Gala 1 all the 12 contestants set the musical stage on fire with their great performances. This Gala was just to show the voting details of the contestants.
In Gala 2 Anil Kapoor and Akshay Khanna were the guest judges and every contestant sang Anil Kapoor's songs of his classic movies. In this Gala the contestants were distributed among the two teams.
.
AGNI TEAM
PRITHVI TEAM
Abhas
Abhilasha
Mirande
Ishmeet
Harshit Saxena
Prantika
Sumitra
Prantik
Toshi Sabri
Priyani
Arshpreet
Irfaan
The Agni team is hosted by Lalit Pundit and Aadesh Shrivaastav and the Prithvi Team is hosted by Abhijeet and Alka Yagnik while the Jatin Pundit remained neutral.
.
In Gala 3 boys sang the songs of Kishore Kumar and the Girls sang the songs of Asha Bhosle. Amit Kumar and his brother were the guest judges of the day. It was the elimination day. Abhas, Prantika,Arshpreet and Prantik entered the danger zone but no one was eliminated.
In Gala 4 the theme was first love. Love was in the air and so the contestants sang the love songs.
.

In Gala 5 Alka Yagnik re-entered the game due to the request of the contestants and that day was of elimination. Everyone sang their song and Prantika, Prantik,Abhilasha and so Prantika was eliminated.
.

In Gala 6 everyone sang the songs of the music director Pritam as he was the guest judge.
In Gala 7 everyone sang the songs of Sonu Nigam as he was the guest judge. It was the elimination day. Prantik, Irrfaan,Priyani and Toshi Sabri entered the danger zone and so Prantik was eliminated.
.

In Gala 8,it was Vishesh Films time. The contestants sang the songs from the films produced under the banner of Vishesh films or if they were directed by Mahesh Bhatt as he, Pooja Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt were the celebrity judges.
.
In Gala 9,it was the time to be get crazy with Sunidhi Chauhan as every contestant sang her song. It was also the day of elimination and the four contestants who came in bottom 4 were Mirande, Abhilasha,Sumitra and Arshpreet and so Arshpreet was eliminated.
In Gala 10,everyone went to their roots in India as they sang regional songs and the guests were Jimmy Shergill, Preeti Jhangiani and Sonia Mehra who came to promote their movie Victoria No. 203.
.
Wild Card Entry
Eliminated contestants on the show are given another chance to prove their talent through a wildcard entry which is started on request of judge Jatin Pandit. Wildcard contestants were judged by renowned personalities of music industry, however there are rumours that these contestants had personal connections with Gajendra Singh.
Wildcard Contestants:
Abhaas
Priyani
Toshi
Arshpreet
Sumitra
Prantik
.
On Friday, October 5th, Toshi, Abhas and Priyani made it to the top three among the wildcard contestants. Originally, the hosts had intended to select only two of these three, and Toshi Sabri and Abhas had scored the highest votes. Abhas had scored only 16 votes more than Priyani, hence all the judges revised their decision and pressed for Priyani to be brought back into the show, citing that a difference of 16 votes is negligible in a contest where lakhs of votes are sent. However, some rumours circulate that this was done to increase the drama and TRP ratings of the show.
.
.

.
.
.
Chhote Ustaad : Winner Aishwariya
The director, Gajendra Singh, is now continuing with a series called "Amul Star Voice of India Chhote Ustaad," meant for children between the ages of 8 and 14.
The series is being hosted by VOI Jury-Award winner Abhaas Joshi and judges Shreya Goshal, Kunal Ganjawala, and Pritam.
.
0
0

Contestants
Aishwariya----(Winner) Announced by Amitabh bachan.
Anwesha-------(Active - Runner Up: Second Place)
Alpansh-------(Eliminated)
Gitashree-----(Eliminated)
Shailey-------(Eliminated)
Mansi---------(Eliminated)
Abeer---------(Eliminated)
Areeb---------(Eliminated)
Jayant--------(Eliminated)
Vyom----------(Eliminated)
Prakriti------(Eliminated) (Wild Card Entrant)
Sonia --------(Eliminated) (jury's choice award winner)
Rigved --------(Eliminated) (Challenger)
.

Grand Finale
The grand finale will took place on 5 April 2008. Amitabh Bachan and Juhi Chawla were the chief guests. Aishwariya was announced as the winner. Both Anwesha and Aishwariya are going to USA for a stage show. The Grand Finale was hosted by Abhaas Joshi and Shaan. To Canada Viewers, it was depressing to see Asian Television Network had said that the grand finale was 1am. However, it came 8:30 instead!
Harshit, Ishmeet and Toshi are participants of Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar, which is aired on Star Plus.

Boogie Woogie - Sony Entertainment Television Presented

.

Sansui Boogie Woogie is an Indian Television dance show that airs on Sony Entertainment Television. In 2007 and finished 10 year, the series was named with the "Sansui" because it was sponsored by Sansui India.

Debuting in 1998, the show is hosted by popular Indian film and television personalities, Naved Jaffrey and Ravi Behl, who also co-created the show with Javed Jaffrey, who appears as the permanent celebrity judge. The show was relaunched by Sony Entertainment Television in 2003.

The dance show has become so popular on Indian television that they have been afforded the opportunity to produce special championship shows, such as kids' championships, teen championships and celebrity championships, in which various Indian celebrities, such as Juhi Chawla, Esha Deol, Dia Mirza, Govinda, Vivek Oberoi and Ritesh Deshmukh have participated. According to the Sony Entertainment Television Asia website, "there are no prizes for winning...loads of accolades, applause and appreciation".

The show held auditions for its new season contestants from February 16-20 in Mumbai. The new season began on Sony Entertainment Television Asia in mid-March.

Judges : Javed Jaffrey, Naved Jaffri & Ravi Behl

Kaun Banega Crorepati - Star Plus Prsented

.

Best of YEAR 2011 (Click Here)

MUST SEE TOP Photos of the DAY

'Kaun Banega Crorepati' is the Indian take on the UK game show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'. The show saw the Big B debuting on the small screen.

Kaun Banega Crorepati (Hindustani: कौन बनेगा करोड़पति کون بنے گا کروڑ پتی Kaun Banegā Karoṛpati; popularly known as KBC) is an Indian game show based on the UK gameshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. This version's title literally translates to "Who will be a ten-millionaire?". The show first aired in 2000 and was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.

This episode was the first appearance of Amitabh Bachchan on Indian television. In 2005, the show was restarted after a four-year hiatus, and renamed Kaun Banega Crorepati Dwitiya (Kaun Banega Crorepati the Second, or KBC2) in which the final prize amount was doubled to 2 crore rupees. The grand prize amount of 2 crore rupees was still used in KBC3.

It was abruptly ended by STAR Plus after the host Amitabh Bachchan fell ill. Although it was originally announced that Bachchan would return, after he declined, Shahrukh Khan was selected to replace him. KBC continues to be produced by Siddhartha Basu's Synergy Communications.

The new 2007 series began airing on January 22, 2007. Phone lines opened from December 22, 2006, 8PM. The key sponsors of the new series are AirTel, Unit Trust of India (UTI Mutual Funds) and ITC. They also have a thinking cap for help signed by SRK. The show ended on April 19, 2007 with a special finale.

"Crore"pati Winners
Best of YEAR 2011 (Click Here)

MUST SEE TOP Photos of the DAY

So far, there have been 8 notable winners of KBC that have left with an amount of, or fairly close to, Rs. 1,00,00,000 or 1 Crore:

· Ajit from Kerala - Winner of Rs. 50,00,000 when the top prize money was Rs. 2,00,00,000.
· Brajesh Dubey - Winner of KBC2 leaving with Rs. 1,00,00,000 when the top prize was Rs. 2,00,00,000
· Harshvardhan Navathe - 1st winner of KBC
· Piyush Swain - winner of 50,00,000 in October 2005. Praised by Amitabh Bachchan as "The Best Contestant he has ever played with" and "You can go all the way to Rs 2 Crores".
· Ravi Saini - Winner of the equally popular series - KBC Junior that featured children under the age of 18 as contestants.
· Sangita Patel from Pune - Winner of 50,00,000

Rules
Similar to the UK version, the contestants have to go through an initial round of "Fastest Finger First" where the host introduces the 10 contestants of the episode and asks them all the same question that the contestants have to put in a certain order. The contestant that puts the four options in the correct order and in the fastest time gets the chance to go on the "hotseat" to play "Kaun Banega Crorepati" to earn the largest prize achievable.

Being eligible as a contestant, the person has to be over the age of 18 and a citizen of India. The person must have not been at "Kaun Banega Crorepati" previously and must also be a resident of India (as per the definition of "resident" in the Income Tax Act, 1961).

At the hotseat, the contestant is asked a series of general knowledge questions consistently rising in difficulty with every question. Each questions has four options/answers with only one correct answer therefore being multiple choice. The contestant must answer a question correctly to win the amount of money they are playing for.

The sum of each question is more or less doubled from the previous amount won consequently increasing the achievable amount every time until the 15th question when it is the maximum amount attainable (currently 2 crores in KBC2 and 3). The current sequence of prize amounts on KBC are as follows:

At the 7th Indian Telly Awards held on the November 16, 2007 in Mumbai, Shah Rukh Khan (though absent at the show) was announced the Best Anchor for Kaun Banega Crorepati.

Lifelines
The current lifelines in KBC3 are the same ones that were used in KBC2. The only difference being that the first season of KBC didn't have the "Flip the Question" lifeline. A contestant can use a lifeline when he is undecided about which answer is correct. A lifeline can only be used once.

Best of YEAR 2011 (Click Here)

MUST SEE TOP Photos of the DAY

Audience Poll - If the contestant uses this lifeline, it will result in the host repeating the question to the audience hence there is an audience poll of the audience currently in the studio. The studio audience get approximately 10 seconds to answer the question using the "keypads" provided. It can also be noticeable that the time given to the audience is slightly more than in the US version. After the audience have chosen their choices, the results are shown on the monitors screens of the host, contestant as well as the TV viewers.

Phone a Friend - If the contestant uses this lifeline, the contestant is allowed to call one of the few pre-arranged friends. The host usually starts off by talking to the contestant's friend and introduces him/her to the viewers. After the introduction, the host hands the phone call over to the contestant who then immediately has 30 seconds to ask and hope for a reply from their friend. Fifty-Fifty (50/50) - If the contestant uses this lifeline, the host will ask the computer to randomly remove and eliminate two of the "wrong" answers.

This will leave one right answer and one wrong answer subsequently resulting in an ironic situation of both eliminating 50% of the choices as well as having a 50% chance of getting the answer right if the contestant is in a situation of making a guess.
At the start of KBC2, Amitabh Bachchan introduced a new lifeline called "Flip the Question". This lifeline is also used in KBC3:

Flip the Question - Just like the lifeline available in the US version, the contestant can completely change the question if they have not come to a final answer. A notable difference is that this lifeline is only available at the $25,000 mark in the US while in KBC, the "Flip the Question" lifeline is available to the contestant at the Rs. 20,000 mark.

Notable Celebrity Guests

Best of YEAR 2011 (Click Here)

MUST SEE TOP Photos of the DAY

Apart from Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan being renowned stars who have hosted the show, these are the following celebrities that have played Kaun Banega Crorepati.

With Amitabh Bachchan:
· Aamir Khan - 2000 - won Rs. 1,00,00,000
· Ajay Devgan & Kajol - 2005- won Rs. 1,00,00,000
· Aman Verma
· Anil Kapoor - 2001
· John Abraham & Bipasha Basu - 2005
· Karan Johar - 2000
· Lara Dutta & Sania Mirza- November 14th 2005 - won Rs. 50,00,000
· Preity Zinta - 2000
· Rani Mukerji - 2000
· Sachin Tendulkar & Madhuri Dixit- 2001- separately won Rs.50,00,000 each.
· Saif Ali Khan - 2000
· Shahrukh Khan - 2000
· Shweta Kwatra & Saakshi Tanwar
· Sonali Bendre

With Shahrukh Khan:
· Arbaaz Khan & Malaika Arora Khan - February 14, 2007
· Farhan Akhtar & Zoya Akhtar - February 14, 2007
· Karan Johar & Farah Khan - February 14, 2007
· Kareena Kapoor & Priyanka Chopra - April 19, 2007 - won Rs. 50,00,000
· Preity Zinta & Rani Mukerji - February 27, 2007 - won Rs. 50,00,000
· Salman Khan & Katrina Kaif - April 19, 2007 - won Rs. 50,00,000
· Sanjay Dutt & Boman Irani - March 29, 2007 - won Rs. 50,00,000


KBC Phraseology
Since it's launch in the year 2000, KBC has inspired thousands with Amitabh's catchy phrases like "Lock kiya jaye?" which has been used in the media a countless number of times, an example being in the 2001 film Nayak: The Real Hero starring Anil Kapoor and Rani Mukerji. With the new series that is hosted by Shahrukh Khan, wordage such as "Lock kiya jaye?" have been changed to "Freeze it!". Additional expressions have been introduced in KBC3 like "Kuch sawaal aapki zindagi badal sakte hain!" which is the official motto of the current show and "Kachcha Kachcha? Pakka Pakka?" that figuratively means "Are you sure or are you not sure?" and literally means "Is you answer unripe? Or is your answer ripe?".

KBC in Popular Culture
· A show named "Kaun Banega Champu" aired on Filmy spoofs KBC and is hosted by comedian Sunil Grover under the name of "Ruk Ruk Khan".

· KBC not only helped Amitabh Bachchan relaunch his bollywood career but also made Star Plus, India's #1 network.
· The show's former host, Amitabh Bachchan, has been parodied by Jaaved Jaffrey.

Best of YEAR 2011 (Click Here)

MUST SEE TOP Photos of the DAY

Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa - Sony Entertainment Television Presented.

.

Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa is an Indian version of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

Sony Entertainment Television brings “Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa” with new celebrities and well known faces to perform with professional dance partners on a highly competitive stage. The show is produced by Synergy (makers of Kaun Banega Crorepati), BBC worldwide and Theatre Red for SET in India.

The show whose format is taken from the 'Strictly Come Dancing' show of BBC, which has been a huge success across 27 countries like Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy.

It also loosely based on 'Dancing with the Stars' show, and was started by Sony to compete against STAR One's already popular Nach Baliye show.

“It’s a ‘Bollywoodisation’ of salsa, jazz and cha cha for the contest,” says dance consultant for the Sony reality show and choreographer Sandip Soparrkar whose task is to ensure that the international dance forms appeal to the Indian viewer.

Seasons
The first season of the show that started on September 7, 2006 was hosted by real life couple Archana Puran Singh and Parmeet Sethi.

The second season of the show that started on September 28, 2007 and ended December 15th, 2007. The show was hosted by Mona Singh, Winner of first season, and Rohit Roy. This time there were 12 participants.

Winners

2006 - Mona Singh, television actress
2007 - Prachi Desai, television actress

Judges

2006 - Farah Khan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Shilpa Shetty
2007 - Urmila Matondkar, Shiamak Davar and Jeetendra

Participants
2006 :
Pooja Bedi - Choreographer - Hanif Hilal (Eliminated in Round 1)
Rati Agnihotri - Choreographer - Feroz Khan (Eliminated in Round 2)
Sanjeev Kapoor - Choreographer - Nicole Alvaris (Eliminated in Round 3)
Akashdeep Sehgal - Choreographer - Bindi Khare (Eliminated in Round 4)
Ajay Jadeja - Choreographer - Rhea Krishnatraye (Eliminated in Round 5)
2nd Runner Up: Mahesh Manjrekar - Choreographer - Sonia Jaffer
Runner Up: Shweta Salve - Choreographer - Loungines Fernandez
Winner: Mona Singh of 'Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin' Fame - Choreographer - Toby

2007 -
Aadesh Srivastav, Music Director of Bollywood, with Choreographer Tina - Eliminated in Round 2
Tapur Chatterjee, model, with Choreographer Feroz - Eliminated in Round 3
Mini Mathur, VJ and TV show host, with Choreographer Hemu - Eliminated in Round 4
Cyrus Broacha, VJ, with Choreographer Rozita Rajput - Eliminated in Round 5
Sudha Chandran, actress and classical dancer, with Choreographer Uma Shankar - Eliminated in Round 6
Mika Singh, singer, with Choreographer Tanushree - Eliminated in Round 8
Ronit Roy, television actor, with Choreographer Nicole Alvaris - Eliminated in Round 9
Sonali Kulkarni, actress, with Choreographer Toby - Eliminated in Round 10
Mir Ranjan Negi, former hockey player and coach, with Choreographer Marisha - Eliminated in Round 11
Jay Bhanushali, television actor, with Choreographer Bindi Khare - Finalist, 2
Sandhya Mridul, actress, with Choreographer Javed Sanadi - Finalist
Prachi Desai, television actress, with Choreographer Deepak Singh - Eliminated in Round 7 - Came back through wild card entry and won the competition

Controversies
1. Buzz is actress Mallika Sherawat has refused to be a judge in the second season of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa. It is said, the actress was offered Rs 2 crore to judge the talent hunt show for 13 episodes, but she was forced to turn down the offer as she couldn't adjust her dates for 13 episodes according to the channel’s requirements.
So they revised the amount and offered her Rs 1.5 crore for 6 episodes. However, Mallika didn't budge from her stand. She was completely against doing a show where she couldn't be able to make it to the final round.
Mallika was said to have told the channel, “It won't be fair to the contestants if I leave the show midway. And why should I cheat my audiences for money?”

So lets wait for Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa season 3.