Star Voice of India is an Indian television singing competition that premiered on 18 May 2007 and ended on 24 November 2007 on StarPlus. The show was directed by Gajendra Singh, creator of the

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa'' is an Indian Hindi-language reality singing television show. It started airing on Zee TV in 1995 as ''Sa Re Ga Ma''. It is the oldest running game show in India as well as the oldest show on private television in India. The ...

series, and produced by Urban Brew Studios. It also featured judges that were on the

series,

Aadesh Shrivastava Aadesh Shrivastava (4 September 1964 – 5 September 2015) was a music composer and singer of Indian music. Initially, he had worked as a drummer to music composers including R. D. Burman, Rajesh Roshan before working independently as a music d ...

Abhijeet Bhattacharya Abhijeet Bhattacharya (born 30 October 1958), better known as Abhijeet, is a Bollywood playback singer. Abhijeet has sung 6034 songs in over 1000 films. Personal life Abhijeet was born to a Kanpur-based Bengali businessman turned editor Dhir ...

, Alka Yagnik, Lalit Pandit and Jatin Pandit. Shaan, who had previously been hosting

. The winner of the show was Ishmeet Singh Sodhi.

Star Voice of India

Prizes

The prizes offered to the winner were:- * A contract for a personal album with Big Music * A Chevrolet Car

Standard auditions

Auditions for the show were held in the Indian cities shown below. The judges chose 17 contestants out of the thousands that had auditioned and the 17 contestants performed on the first two episodes of the show. 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 Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

: Swabhumi 89 C, Maulana Abdul Kalam Avenue (700054) - 29 April *

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

: Bhavans College, Munshi Nagar, Dadabhai Road,

Andheri West Andheri ( �n̪d̪ʱeɾiː is a locality in the western part of the city of Mumbai in India. Udayanagari, the name of a hill near the Mahakali caves, inspired the name Andheri. On the former islet of Versova, also known as Vasave, there was ano ...

- 4 May *

Indore Indore () is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is the only city to ...

: Hotel Fortune Land Mark, Vijaynagar, Indore - 5 May *

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

: Shankarlal Hall Delhi University Main Campus - 11 May *

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known ...

: Jai Club, Mahavir Marg, C Scheme, Jaipur - 12 May *

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

: Ravindralaya Auditorium, Charbagh, Lucknow - 18 May

Shortcut to auditions

In addition, there was another way to audition from 1 May 2007 at 9:00 a.m. to 10 May 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 leave personal details that were recorded. If the participant did not follow all the instructions given to them, the participant's entry was rendered null and void. Inaudible and unclear entries were also not accepted. The participant was only allowed to sing Hindi songs with a duration of up to 60 seconds. Singing for longer than 60 seconds also rendered one's entry null and void. 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.

Top contestants

Contestants are noted here in reverse chronological order of elimination. * Ishmeet Singh Sodhi -

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

(Winner)(Deceased 29 July 2008) *

Harshit Saxena Harshit Saxena (born 21 August 1985) is an Indian playback singer and composer. His debut was as music director for the ''Murder 2'' film. Saxena won the Upcoming Music Composer Award in 2012 at Music Mirchi Awards for his song "Haal-E-Dil" fr ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

(Runner-up) * Abhilasha Venkatachalam -

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

, Maharashtra (Jury's Choice-Female)* *Sumitra Iyer -

, Maharashtra *

Abhas Joshi Star Voice of India is an Indian television singing competition that premiered on 18 May 2007 and ended on 24 November 2007 on StarPlus. The show was directed by Gajendra Singh, creator of the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series, and produced by Urban Bre ...

Jabalpur Jabalpur is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the 2011 census, it is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Madhya Pradesh and the country's 38th-largest urban agglomeration. J ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

(Jury's Choice)(Wildcard entry) *

Toshi Sabri Toshi Sabri is an Indian singer and music composer. He gained fame with the song "Maahi" from the 2009 Bollywood film '' Raaz: The Mystery Continues''. Background He appeared on Reality TV show singing contests ''Amul STAR Voice of India'' (F ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

(Wildcard entry) * Mohammed Irfan -

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

*Priyani Vani -

(Wildcard entry) * Mirande Shah - Ahmedabad,

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

* Arshpreet Kaur -

* Prantik Sur -

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

* Prantika Mukherjee -

Galas

In the galas, the contestants were distributed among two teams The Agni team was hosted by Lalit Pandit and

and the Prithvi team was hosted by

and Alka Yagnik while Jatin Pandit remained neutral. * In Gala 1, all the 12 contestants performed on stage. This Gala introduced the viewers to the contestants' voting details. * In Gala 2

Anil Kapoor Anil Kapoor (born 24 December 1956) is an Indian actor and producer who works primarily in Hindi films, besides television and international films and television. In a career spanning over 40 years as an actor and since 2005 as a producer, Kapo ...

and Akshay Khanna were the guest judges and every contestant sang song from

's films. * In Gala 3, the boys sang the songs of Kishore Kumar and the girls sang the songs of

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in th ...

Amit Kumar Amit Kumar (born 3 July 1952) is an Indian playback singer, actor, music composer. Kumar launched his own music production company, named Kumar Brothers Music. He predominantly worked in Bollywood and regional film songs since the 1970s, inc ...

and his brother were the guest judges of the day. It was elimination day. Abhas, Prantika, Arshpreet and Prantik were in the danger zone but no one was eliminated. * In Gala 4, the theme was love and all the contestants sang romantic songs. * In Gala 5, everyone sang songs of their choice. It was elimination day. Prantika, Prantik and Abhilasha were in the bottom three and Prantika was eliminated. * In Gala 6, everyone sang the songs of the music director Pritam Chakravarthy as he was the guest judge. * In Gala 7, singer

Sonu Nigam Sonu Nigam (born 30 July 1973) is an Indian singer, music director and actor. He has been described in the media as one of the most popular and successful playback singers of Hindi Cinema and Kannada Cinema. He has been honoured by the Governme ...

was the celebrity judge and all the contestants sang his songs. It was elimination day. Prantik, Irrfaan, Priyani and

were in the danger zone and Prantik was eliminated. * In Gala 8, Mahesh Bhatt,

Pooja Bhatt Pooja Bhatt (born 24 February 1972) is an Indian film director, actress, voice over artist and film maker. Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of Indian filmmaker, Mahesh Bhatt. Bhatt played her first leading role in Mahesh Bhatt's ...

and

Mukesh Bhatt Mukesh Bhatt (born 5 June 1952) is an Indian film producer and actor who has produced several Bollywood films. He is the younger brother of Mahesh Bhatt, and also the co-owner of the production company Vishesh Films, set up in 1986. He is the u ...

were the celebrity judges and all the contestants sang songs from their films or from films under the Vishesh Films' banner. * In Gala 9, all the contestants sang singer Sunidhi Chauhan's songs. It was elimination day and the four contestants who came in bottom 4 were Mirande, Abhilasha, Sumitra and Arshpreet. The latter was eliminated. * In Gala 10, everyone went to their roots in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

as they sang regional songs from their respective regions. The guests were

Jimmy Shergill Jimmy Sheirgill (born Jasjit Singh Gill; 3 December 1970), also credited as Jimmy Shergill, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi and Punjabi films. Sheirgill began his film career with the 1996 thriller '' Maachis''. His bre ...

Preeti Jhangiani Preeti Jhangiani is an Indian model and actress. Jhangiani first appeared in Rajshri Productions music album ''Yeh Hai Prem'' in 1997. She is known for her work in the Telugu films '' Thammudu'' (1999), ''Narasimha Naidu'' (2001), Malayalam fil ...

and Sonia Mehra, who all came to promote their movie Victoria No. 203.

Wild Card Entry

Eliminated contestants on the show were given another chance to prove their talent through a wildcard entry episode which was started on request of judge Jatin Pandit. Wildcard contestants were judged by renowned personalities of music industry. The Wildcard Contestants were: *Abhaas *Priyani *

*Arshpreet *Prantik On Friday, 5 October,

, 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

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 hundreds of thousands of votes are sent.

Grand finale

The Grand Finale was held on 24 November 2007. Ishmeet Singh Sodhi 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.

Winner

The winner of the first Star Voice of India was thus officially declared as Ishmeet Singh, who hails from

. After winning the show, he released a religious album called "Satgur Tumre Kwaaj Saware". He supposedly died in a drowning accident, on 29 July 2008. Evidence was found to say that he was murdered.

Chhote Ustaad

The director, Gajendra Singh and production house, Urban Brew Studios, then continued the series with a version for juniors called "Amul Star Voice of India Chhote Ustaad," meant for children between the ages of 8 and 14. The series was hosted by Voice of India Jury-Award winner Abhaas Joshi and judges

Shreya Ghoshal Shreya Ghoshal (born 12 March 1984) is an Indian singer and television personality. One of the highest-paid and most well-established playback singers of Indian cinema, she has received four National Film Awards, four Kerala State Film Awards ...

, Kunal Ganjawala, and

Pritam Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also known mononymously as Pritam, is an Indian composer, instrumentalist, guitarist, and singer. After working as an ad jingles composer, he debuted as a co-composer in the 2001 Hindi film Tere Liye. ...

Contestants

Aishwarya Aishwarya (Devanagari : ''ऐश्वर्य'') is a Hindu Indian or Nepalese male or feminine given name, which means "prosperity" and "wealth". Notable people named Aishwarya * Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran (born 1971), Indian actress * Aishwar ...

(Winner) Announced by Amitabh Bachchan. * Anwesha (Active - Runner Up: Second Place) *Alpansh (Eliminated) * Gitashree Shil(Amika Shail)(Eliminated) *Shailey (Eliminated) * Mansi Bhardwaj (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 took place on 5 April 2008. Amitabh Bachchan and

Juhi Chawla Juhi Chawla (born 13 November 1967) is an Indian actress, film producer and entrepreneur. She established herself as one of the leading actresses of Hindi cinema from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. Recognised for her comic timing and v ...

were the chief guests. Aishwarya was announced as the winner. Both Anwesha and Aishwarya are going to United States for a stage show. The Grand Finale was hosted by Abhaas Joshi and Shaan.

Season 2

Star Voice of India 2 premiered on 18 July 2008. It Stands for Second Season of Gajendra Singh and Urban Brew's previous Show Star Voice of India. This season replaces all old judges with three new judges. The two finalists on the show were Ravi Shukla and Saptaparna Chakraborty. A three-hour grand finale was held at the Andheri Sport's Complex in

on 21 December, in the presence of prominent singers like

Jagjit Singh Jagjit Singh (born Jagmohan Singh Dhiman; 8 February 1941 – 10 October 2011) was an Indian composer, singer and musician. He composed and sang in numerous languages and is credited for the revival and popularity of ghazal, an Indian cl ...

Ila Arun Ila Arun is an Indian actress, TV personality and Rajasthani folk and folk-pop singer. She has appeared in many prominent Bollywood movies such as ''Lamhe'', ''Jodhaa Akbar'', ''Shaadi Ke Side Effects'' and ''Begum Jaan''. Personal life Arun ...

and

. During the course of the finale, the finalists conducted several performances and were often joined by their former rivals, in a spirit of co-operation and unity. A special remembrance video was assembled to remember the late Ishmeet Singh, who was the first winner of Star Voice of India series. In order to sustain his memory, the show presented the first Ishmeet Singh Singing Award to Ronit Sonar of Assam, a contestant on the show. At the end of the show, Ravi Shukla of Delhi was crowned the winner by guest

. As part of the winner's package, Ravi was awarded a brand new Chevrolet car along with a cheque for Rs. 2.5 million. In addition to the bonus gift, Ravi was awarded an exclusive contract with T-Series to launch his first album. Both Ravi and Saptaparna were awarded trophies by their "gurus",

Monty Sharma Monty Sharma (born 17 April 1970) is a music composer from India scoring music for Bollywood. He is popular for being the background music composer for ''Black'' (2005), '' Ram-Leela'' (2013) and music director for ''Saawariya'' (2007). He is cou ...

and Ismail Darbar respectively.

Host

* Shaan

Judges

* Sukhwinder Singh * Ismail Darbar *

Contestants

Chote Ustad Season 2

Amul Star Voice Of India Chote Ustad Season 2 is hosted by Chinmayi and

Omi Vaidya Omi Vaidya (born January 10, 1982) is an American actor of Indian descent who works in Bollywood films. He is best known for his performance as Chatur Ramalingam or "Silencer" in the 2009 buddy-drama film, '' 3 Idiots''. In addition, Vaidya has ...

. The judges are

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan Rahat Fateh Ali Khan (Punjabi, ; born 9 December 1974) is a Pakistani Singer, primarily of Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music. Khan is one of the biggest and highest paid singers in Pakistan. He is the nephew of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ...

and

. There are 20 contestants, 10 from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

and 10 from

. The contestants are divided into ten groups with one contestant from India and one from Pakistan in a group. The following are the contestants: Contestants from India * Ansh Pandey (Eliminated) * Rishabh Chaturvedi * Sayantan Paul (Eliminated) (Wild Card Entrant) * Mayuri Dey (Eliminated) * Satinder Shanu (Eliminated) * Akanksha Sharma * Bhanu Pratap Agnihotri (Eliminated) * Dipan Mitra (Eliminated) * Debanjana Karmakar (Eliminated) * Shyamantan Das (Eliminated) Contestants from Pakistan * Wania Jibran(Eliminated) * Shahid Ali (Eliminated) * Sayyed Mair Hasan (Eliminated) * Rosemary Mushtaq (Eliminated) * Fariha Akram (Eliminated) * Rouhan Abbas * Ahsan Ali (Eliminated) (Wild Card Entrant) * MOHD. Fahad (Eliminated) * Farrukh Moon * Faisal (Eliminated) The Pairings: * Ansh Pandey and Wania Jibran(Eliminated) * Satinder Shanu and Shahid Ali (Eliminated) * Mayuri Dey and Sayyed Mair Hasan (Eliminated) * Bhanu Pratap Aghnihotri and Ahsan Ali (Eliminated) * Rishabh Chaturvedi and Farrukh Moon * Debanjana Karmakar and Faisal (Eliminated) * Dipan Mitra and Fariha Akram (Eliminated) * Rosemary Mushtaq and Shyamantan Das (Eliminated) * Sayantan Paul and Mohammad Fahad (Eliminated) * Akanksha Sharma and Rouhan Abbas Wild Card Pairing: * Sayantan Paul and Ahsan Ali Grand Finale The Grand Finale was held on 10 October 2010. In third place was the Wild Card entry pair of Sayantan Paul and Ahsan Ali. In second place was the pair of Rishabh Chaturvedi and Farrukh Moon. The winner of Chote Ustaad 2010 was the pair of Akanksha Sharma and Rouhan Abbas. Shyamantan Das received a special Jury's Award because of his outstanding performance throughout the show.

External links

Official Site

References

{{Shreya Ghoshal 2007 Indian television series debuts 2010 Indian television series endings Indian reality television series StarPlus original programming