''MasterChef India – Tamil'' (or simply ''MasterChef Tamil'') is an Indian

Tamil-language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one ...

competitive cooking reality show based on ''

MasterChef Australia ''MasterChef Australia'' is an Australian competitive cooking reality show based on the original British ''MasterChef (British TV series), MasterChef''. It is produced by Endemol Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and ch ...

'' and is part of ''

MasterChef India ''MasterChef India'' is an Indian competitive cooking game show franchise based on the Australian show ''MasterChef Australia'', which itself is based on the original British television show ''MasterChef (British TV series), MasterChef''. ''Mast ...

''. The series features amateur and home chefs competing to win the title of 'MasterChef'. The current line-up of judges consists Koushik Shankar, Rakesh Raghunathan, and Shreeya Adka. The debut

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

of the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

version of ''

MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking show television format created by Franc Roddam, which originated with MasterChef (British TV series), the British version in July 1990. The show aims to discover the culinary talent of chefs of varying sk ...

'' in 2021 made the MasterChef format surpass 500 seasons worldwide.

Format

The show features 14 contestants (only commoner people), with three chefs as judges. It is broadcast weekly every Saturday and Sunday on Sun TV at 9:30pm (India Time). In Season 1, the top 24 competed until 14 were left, with the final 14 progressing to the main stage of the show. The winner competes for a prize that includes their own restaurant, the chance to have their own chef coat, and 25,00,000 in cash and the MasterChef trophy.

Episodes

''MasterChef India - Tamil'' aired two nights a week on the weekends. Each night features a different episode format, however, some episodes modify the format slightly. The typical episode formats are as follows: Saturdays usually feature a cooking challenge — each home cook participates in a Mystery Challenge, Pair Challenge, or a Team Challenge. They are asked to prepare a dish using a core ingredient(s) featured that day. Depending on their performance, the judges declare the ones with the top dishes safe from the Pressure Test, which takes place the following day; the participants performing poorly go on to compete in the Pressure Test. Sundays typically feature a Pressure Test or some other form of Elimination Challenge. The bottom three contestants from the preceding night are given a recipe for a particular dish which they are to emulate in an allotted time. The judges then taste their outputs and depending on their level of performance, select one contestant — whose performance was the poorest — who is eliminated from the competition. In season 2, the format changed and the show aired daily.

Hosts and judges

Series

Season 1

The first season of ''MasterChef India – Tamil'' aired from 7 August 2021. Hosted by

Vijay Sethupathi Vijaya Gurunatha Sethupathi Kalimuthu (born 16 January 1978) is an Indian actor and film producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, Tamil films. Sethupathi is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Awards, National F ...

, while professional chefs such as Harish Rao, Aarthi Sampath and Koushik Shankar are the judges for this season. The show telecasted on every Saturday and Sunday on Sun TV. It also streamed on

Sun NXT Sun NXT (read as "Sun Next") is an Indian subscription video on demand over-the-top streaming service run by Sun TV Network. It was launched in June 2017 and has content in six languages - Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi a ...

platform. The season was won by Devaki Vijayaraman from Trichy, Tamil Nadu while Nithya Franklyn emerged as the runner up.

Season 2

The second season of ''MasterChef India – Tamil'' was announced in 2023. Koushik Shankar will return from season 1, alongside new judges Rakesh Raghunathan and Shreeya Adka. The three judges were introduced on '' MasterChef India – Hindi'' on 20 November 2023. The season was won by Akash Muralidharan from

Chennai, Tamil Nadu Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

while Zarina Banu and Vani Sundar emerged as the runner ups.

Production

Development

In early 2021,

Sun TV Network Sun TV Network Limited is a Indian media company, headquartered in Chennai. It is a part of Sun Group and was established on 14 April 1993 by Kalanithi Maran. It owns a variety of television channels and radio stations in multiple languages ...

secured the production rights of MasterChef in Tamil. And in 2024,

SonyLIV Sony LIV is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Culver Max Entertainment. Sony LIV was introduced in 2013 as the first OTT service in India. As a streaming service, it provides live sports, origina ...

secured the rights for the 2nd season.

Filming

Filming of the show began in late June 2021 for the first season. The filming started for the 2nd season in late 2023.

Other versions

Regarding other Indian regional languages, ''

'' was initially adapted in Hindi under the name of '' MasterChef India – Hindi''. '' MasterChef India – Telugu'' debuted alongside the Tamil version in 2021 on Sun TV's sister channel

Gemini TV Gemini TV is an Indian Telugu language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Sun TV Network. It is the first satellite TV channel in Telugu. It was launched on 9 February 1995 by the Gemini Group of Hyderabad (run by Akkineni ...

. Kannada and Malayalam adaptations were planned, but have not yet started production as of 2024.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:MasterChef India - Tamil Tamil-language game shows 2021 Tamil-language television series debuts 2020s Tamil-language television series Tamil-language cooking television series Tamil-language television shows Tamil-language television series based on British television series Tamil-language reality television series Sun TV original programming Sony Entertainment Television original programming SonyLIV original programming Indian cooking television series Television series by Banijay Vijay Sethupathi