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.
| Indian Idol | |
| Indian Idol Finalists (with dates of elimination) | |
| Season 1 (2004-2005) | |
| Abhijeet Sawant | Winner |
| Amit Sana | March 4 |
| Rahul Vaidya | February 18 |
| Prajakta Shukre | February 12 |
| Ravinder Ravi | February 4 |
| Aditi Paul | January 28 |
| Mukesh Kumar Pancholi | January 21 |
| Harish Moyal | January 14 |
| Rahul Saxena | January 7 |
| Amit Tandon | December 31 |
| Vishal Kothari | December 24 |
| Priyanka Venkateshwara | Dropped out |
| Season 2 (2005-2006) | |
| Indian Idol Season 2 Finalists (with dates of elimination) | |
| Sandeep Acharya | Winner |
| NC Karunya | April 22 |
| 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 (to be in season 3) |
| Yashashree Bhave | January 24 |
| Sagar Sawarkar | January 17 |
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.
Structure
The show is segmented into four rounds:
Theatre round
Held in Mumbai, contestants perform one song to the panel of judges. The deliberations must limit the contender pool to 28 hopefuls.
Piano round
The 28 semifinalists are split up into four groups of seven each; two girl groups, two boy groups. From each group three finalists are chosen by the public who go on to form the final 12.
Gala round
One contestant is eliminated each week by viewer votes.
Prizes
The winner signs a contract worth ten million rupees with Sony Entertainment Television (India) along with a chance to record an album. The winner also receives a car and in the second season Sandeep Acharya also got a guitar signed by Abhijeet Sawant.
Season One
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.
Season Two
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. Eliminated 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. 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, NC Karunya, Antara Mitra, Anuj Sharma, and Amey Date.)
Season Three
Season three marked the arrival of two new judges on 4 May, 2007. Anu Malik is now joined by singer Alisha Chinai who replaced Farah Khan, and Udit Narayan also joined the judges who replaced Sonu Nigam. Auditions were held on the following dates in 2007:
- Jodhpur & Bhubaneshwar - February 15
- Hyderabad & Amritsar - February 18
- Srinagar & Nagpur - February 21
- Baroda - February 27 & February 28
- Bhopal - March 7 & March 8
- Kanpur - March 12 & March 13
- Delhi - March 17, March 18 & March 19
- Kolkata - March 24, March 25 & March 26
- Birmingham, UK - March 30, March 31 & April 1
- Mumbai - March 31, April 1 & April 2
- Dubai, UAE - April 6 & April 7
Contestents of Piano Round of Season III
Abhishek Kumar
Age: 20 Yrs
City: Dhanbad (Bihar)
Aisha Sayed - Voted out (June 5, 2007)
Age: 20 Yrs
City: Mumbai (Maharashtra)
Amit Paul
Age: 24 Yrs
City: Shillong (Meghalaya)
Anish Jain - Voted out (June 6, 2007)
Age: 27 Yrs
City: Ajmer (Rajasthan)
Ankita Mishra
Age: 17 Yrs
City: Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)
Bharat Uniyal - Voted out (June 4, 2007)
Age: 20 Yrs
City: Meerut (Uttar Pradesh)
Bhavin Dhanak
Age: 23 Yrs
City: Mumbai (Maharashtra)
Charu Semwal
Age: 19 Yrs
City: Dehradun (Uttarakhand)
Deepali
Age: 18 Yrs
City: Patna (Bihar)
Emon Chaterjee
Age: 17 Yrs
City: Kolkata (West Bengal)
Harshida Madhaparia
Age: 19 Yrs
City: Middlesex (London)
Meiyang Chang
Age: 24 Yrs
City: Dhanbad (Jharkhand)
Padmanav Bordoloi - Voted out (June 6, 2007)
Age: 18 Yrs
City: Assam (Guwahati)
Parleen Singh Gill
Age: 19 Yrs
City: Ambala (Haryana)
Pinky Maidasani - Voted out (June 2, 2007)
Age: 27 Yrs
City: Mumbai (Maharashtra)
Prashant Tamang
Age: 24 Yrs
City: Kolkata (West Bengal)
Priyanka Mukherjee - Voted out (June 5, 2007)
Age: 22 Yrs
City: Kolkata (West Bengal)
Puja Chhaterjee
Age: 18 Yrs
City: Jharkhand
Rashmi Vijayan - Voted out (June 2, 2007)
Age: 18 Yrs
City: Dubai/Kerala
Rehan Khan
Age: 17 Yrs
City: Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh)
Richa Aneja
Age: 17 Yrs
City: Amritsar (Punjab)
Roshan Singh - Voted out (June 4, 2007)
Age: 25 Yrs
City: Brisbane (Australia)
Shantanu Sudame - Voted out (June 6, 2007)
Age: 22 Yrs
City: Gwalior (M.P.)
Shifa Ansari
Age: 17 Yrs
City: Mhow (M.P.)
Smita Adhikari
Age: 24 Yrs
City: Kolkata (West Bengal)
Suhit Gosain
Age: 21 Yrs
City: Gurgaon (Haryana)
Vanita - Voted out (June 5, 2007)
Age: 20 Yrs
City: Dubai/Chennai
Vartika Shukla
Age: 17 Yrs
City: Raipur (Chattisgarh)
Judges
Jury Members
- Sonu Nigam: playback singer & actor (Season 1 and 2).
- Farah Khan: choreographer/director (Season 1 and 2).
- Javed Akhtar: Lyricist and Scriptwriter (Season 3).
- Anu Malik: music director & singer (Season 1, 2 and 3).
- Alisha Chinai: playback singer (Season 3).
- Udit Narayan : playback singer (Season 3).
- Kailash Kher : playback singer (Season 3) for Kanpur audition.
Celebrity judges
Every week a celebrity judge is called on the show to comment on the performances and to inspire the singers. Here is a list of special judges who appeared in Indian Idol (In alphabetical order):
- Juhi Chawla
- Priyanka Chopra
- Karan Johar
- Kajol for the finals of Season 1 and Season 2.
- Kareena Kapoor
- Arbaaz Khan
- Fardeen Khan
- Salman Khan
- Sohail Khan
- Zayed Khan
- Diya Mirza
- Dino Morea
- Vivek Oberoi
- Amisha Patel
- Abhijeet Sawant
- Malika Sherawat
- Shilpa Shetty
- Will Smith (Guest Appearance, not judge)
- Tabu
- Preity Zinta
Presenters
Mini Mathur, a music TV VJ and Aman Verma, an established TV anchor and actor, presented the first season and second season as a pair. In third season, Mini Mathur is joined by Hussain Kuwajaerwala.