Thursday, September 25, 2008

About Indian Idol

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 BertelsmanSeason OneThe 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.
Season TwoThe 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.)
Season ThreeThe 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 .

Monday, September 22, 2008

Sonali to judge, Chang, Deepali to host Indian Idol


Sony is back with the fourth season of its popular music based reality show Indian Idol 4 In an attempt to make it bigger and better the channel had roped in actress Sonali Bendre as a judge who was recently seen as a judge on Mr. & Miss TV. The channel has retained Anu Malik and Javed Akhtar from its earlier season and along with Sonali the channel has roped in singing star Kailash Kher to adjudicate.Albert Almeida, Executive VP and Business Head, Sony said, “Sonali Bendre is the fourth judge on the show who will be joining Anu Malik, Javed Akhtar and Kailash Kher on the show.”Talking about the probable hosts of the show, Albert said, “For time being we have zeroed down on the last season contestants Meiyang Chang and Deepali Kishore to host the auditions for the show. If our viewers respond positively to their hosting, we will think on retaining them as the official hosts of the show.”

Deepali Kishore to host Indian Idol 4

Deepali Kishore, nicknamed the ‘nightingale’ of Indian Idol 3, started singing at the tender age of 3. Her positive approach and her affable smile made her the audience’s favourite. Deepali was one of the few contestants to receive the support of all the judges and was known to share a great camaraderie with her co-contestants. Judges believed that her voice quality was refreshing, melodic and had everything it took to be an accomplished singer.
Apart from training in classical music for 5 years, Deepali has diversified into dancing and acting too. An original bundle of fun and laughter, this vivacious girl from Patna has the knack of speaking in funny ways to make everyone laugh!
Deepali returns to the Indian Idol stage which brought her fame and love of millions of viewers. However, this time she will co-host the audition phase of Indian Idol 4 with Meiyang Chang.