India's version of "American Idol" sparked violence on Friday when police clashed with supporters of the winner, leaving at least 30 people injured. Officials said the army had been called in to maintain calm.
Prashant Tamang, an ethnic Nepali youth from the eastern state of West Bengal, beat Amit Paul from Meghalaya state, inflaming regional rivalries after a closely contested final round on Sunday.
The animosities subsided after the two contestants appealed for peace, but a radio station stoked further trouble by making inflammatory remarks about Tamang this week, angering ethnic Nepalese.
On Friday, thousands marched in West Bengal's Siliguri town to protest the remarks. The procession later turned violent, forcing police to fire tear gas shells and use batons.
"The situation is tense. We have placed the entire region under heavy security cover," Ravinder Jit Singh Nalwa, a senior police officer, said.
"Indian Idol" is among a slew of singing contests on Indian television judged by audience vote. The voting is heavily parochial with contestants drawing maximum votes from their native state.
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Kolkata policeman Prashant Tamang is 'Indian Idol 3'
In a grand musical extravaganza, Prashant Tamang from Darjeeling was last night crowned Indian Idol 3 after a count of an estimated 70 million votes received through SMS or mobiles.
Tamang, who is of Nepali origin, is a constable with the Kolkata police.
The grand finale last night saw actor John Abraham name Prashant out of the two finalists, the other being Amit Paul of Shillong, a great favourite in Delhi and the metros.
In addition to a recording contract with Sony BMG, Prashant was awarded a contract worth Rs 10 million with Sony Entertainment Television. Both Prashant and Amit were also awarded one Maruti SX4 and one Sony Ericsson Mobile Phone.
Fireworks lit up the sky as the winner was named after the slip containing his name was taken out by Abraham. In a recent episode of Indian Idol, Abraham had announced his preference for Prashant.
After the announcement, Prashant took the blessings of the judges and then gallantly walked to the front of the stage with Amit, both holding the Sony Trophy presented to the winner. As in the two earlier segments, the finale of the Indian Idol was an all-male affair. Interestingly, Amit had been eliminated in the earlier rounds but was chosen by the judges to be brought back into the competition.
All the judges – lyricist Javed Akhtar, music director Anu Malik, and singers Udit Narayan and Alisha Chinai – were also present on the grand stage at the National Small Industries Corporation Exhibition Ground in Okhla in south Delhi. Others present were the parents of the two finalists, and the presenters Mini Mathur and Hussain.
Both the finalists, Prashant and Amit, also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandi during two days they were in the capital preparing for the finale. Congress President Sonia Gandhi said that she's proud of the youngsters and they are idols in their own way.
All those who had qualified as the thirteen shortlisted after the piano round presented musical items, including the title song which they have rendered for the John Abraham-Bipasha Basu starrer ‘Goal’.
Others who performed at the finale included Indipop singer Mika and playback singer Sukhwinder Singh, apart from Malik, Alisha, and Udit. Two former winners of Indian Idol, Abhijeet Sawant and Sandeep Acharya also performed. The huge audience was in raptures and stood in their seats as Sukhwinder sang Chak De India.
A special item was the presentation of some of Anu’s best songs by the two finalists, with Anu himself overseeing the music accompaniment. Anu was also a judge in the first two segments of Indian Idol.
Earlier, in interviews to indiantelevision.com, the judges had said the aim of Indian Idol 3 had been to find just one voice who would be ‘Bharat ki shaan’ (Pride of India) and would be proficient in modern, classical, semi-classical, pop and also in dancing. Indian Idol 3 was produced for Sony Entertainment TV by the Delhi-based Miditech headed by Niret and Nikhil J Alva.
The third series commenced as a Friday-Saturday show, starting with 24 contestants and gradually coming down to 13, and then two in the finals to select the lone winner. However, the channel attempted to capitalize on the popularity by extending it to other days of the week towards the beginning and then the end.
The preliminaries were held in 12 cities. The cities are Jodhpur, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Srinagar, Nagpur, Vadodra, Bhopal, Kampur, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Meanwhile, in recent interviews, the finalists said they feel that a major benefit of the music competition, even if they are not selected, would be the new confidence they have gained to face the future.
Launched in Britain as Pop Idol, the Idol series had already traversed to 28 countries in 40 channels all over the world. Sony was bound by the rules set by Pop Idol, but made a change with the introduction of a fourth celebrity judge. However, Shola Rajachandran who heads Media Communications at Sony told indiantelevision.com that this had been done keeping in mind the theme of the week. For example, it was Ila Arun for the week when folk songs were sung, Anil Kapoor when patriotism was the theme, and Sonu Nigam when modern film songs were sung.
Though Prashant is the lone winner, some of the others have already been recorded songs for Bollywood, and Alisha Chinai is recording an album with Meiyang Chang from Dhanbad who is a dentist of Chinese origin and was eliminated towards the end. Alisha had protested and left the show, but had been convinced by Chang to return. (Chang brought a special painting as a gift for Alisha to the finale.)
Sony sources said the top eight or nine participants in each of the first two editions had already been either lapped up by the film industry or achieved success in stage performances in India and overseas. For example, she said Prajakta who had been a finalist in the last edition had already recorded in 17 languages.
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Sony to showcase week long special of 'Indian Idol 3'
Delhi to host 'Indian Idol 3' grand finale on 23 Sept.
Sony to showcase week long special of 'Indian Idol 3'
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In an attempt to build up the intensity as Indian Idol 3 approaches its finale, Sony Entertainment Television will showcase some excerpts of the journey of the two finalists before the final gala round.
The week long journey begins on 17 September at 9 pm and will culminate on 23 September. The half hour episodes will have excerpts from the musical journey of the two contenders Amit Paul and Prashant Tamang.
The episode on 17 September and 18 September will follow the journey of Tamang and Paul from their respective cities.
The episode on 19 September will show the recent experiences of both the contestants when they visited their hometowns.
On 20 September, the show will salute Udit Narayan, Anu Malik, Javed Akhtar and Alisha Shenoy, the judges of the show. On 21 September Sony will telecast the last public performance by both the finalists in Kolkata.
The final performance of the two contestants which will decide their fate on the show will be shown on 22 September. This will be followed by a sneak preview to the second season of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa which will replace Indian Idol 3 on 28 September.
The grand finale crowning the winner of the third season will be held in Delhi and will be aired live on 23 September from 9 pm to 12 pm.
Delhi to host 'Indian Idol 3' grand finale on 23 Sept.
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The finals of the third edition of Indian Idol will take place in Delhi on 23 September as a two-hour musical extravaganza.
After the elimination of Ankita Mishra last week, the three contestants in the fray are Amit Paul from Shillong, Prashant Tamang from Darjeeling and Emon Chatterjee from Kolkata.
Soon after the elimination of one more contestant, the reality TV show from Sony will see its two finalists go on a nationwide promotional-cum-concert tour, before coming to Delhi.
The winner will be trained by Sony BMG for one year before recording the first album to bring perfection to his voice. In addition to a recording contract with Sony BMG, the winner will be awarded a contract worth Rs 10 million with Sony Entertainment Television.
The third edition was different in terms of the number of Indian cities it had covered – 12 - apart from two foreign destinations during the audition stages.
The auditions rounds were held in Jodhpur, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Srinagar, Nagpur, Vadodra, Bhopal, Kampur, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.
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Govinda rocks today's Indian Idol!
Today's gala round is packed with high powered performances, backed by the electrifying and vintage dance moves of none other than Hero No 1, Govinda himself. The one who enticed him to take the stage was none other than the spunky Ankita Mishra, whose spunky rendition has made the entire judges dance to her tune on stage.
Govinda's moves could put many a youngster to shame. The ease with which he danced to the classic hit babuji dheere chalna brought the house down. He followed it up with the racy and raunchy babuji zara dheere chalo. Result: The audience wanted more and so did the judges. So the show continued with Alisha, Anu Malik and Udit Narayan all taking to the stage with the contestants for a mind-blowing performance.
While Govinda will be seen promoting his upcoming film, Partner on Indian Idol, his co-star Salman will be doing same tomorrow on Zee's Sa Re Ga Ma. Now they only way to gauge their popularity is by keeping a check on the TRPs of these two shows! What say?
10 finalists of Indian Idol flaunt their talent on Radio Mirchi
