{{Use dmy dates, date=December 2015 Mission Ustaad is an Indian musical

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

produced by

Endemol Endemol B.V. (stylized in all lowercase) was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted gen ...

India, that premiered on 1 December 2007. The show was telecast every Friday and Saturday at 9 pm on

9X Media 9X Media is the largest Indian music broadcaster operating 4 music television channels and a Bollywood news portal – www.spotboye.com. The four music channels are 9XM (Latest Bollywood), 9x Jalwa, 9X Jalwa (Evergreen Hindi), 9X Jhakaas (Marat ...

Channel. Featuring eight famous Indian singers as contestants, the show aimed to create awareness about the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

(UN)

Millennium Development Goals In the United Nations, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 created following the Millennium Summit, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These w ...

(MDGs) across the country. The show was hosted by Simone Singh and the judges were composer

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

, lyricist and scriptwriter

Javed Akhtar Javed Akhtar (born 1945) is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist and poet. Known for his work in Hindi cinema, he has won five National Film Awards, and received the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007, two of India's highest civili ...

and actress

Lara Dutta Lara Dutta Bhupathi ( Dutta; born 16 April 1978) is an Indian actress. She won the Miss Universe 2000, and has since predominantly worked in Hindi films and series. Dutta is a recipient of a Filmfare Awards, Filmfare Award and established hers ...

. The 9X channel contributed all the profits from the SMS messages received for Mission Ustaad to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in India. The Grand Finale was held on 23 February 2008.

Sunali Rathod Sunali Rathod is an Indian playback singer. She is also a trained classical singer. Personal life Sunali Rathod was born Sonali Sheth on 17 January 1970 into a Gujarati people, Gujarati family in Mumbai. She studied in St. Xavier's College, ...

Roop Kumar Rathod Roopkumar Rathod an Indian playback singer, pop singer, and music composer. He has performed a number of songs in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese, Odia, Nepali, Bhojpuri and Kannada films. Personal life Ratho ...

were crowned with the "Ustaad Jodi" title.

Contestants

The four pairs of contestants (jodis) were: *

Vasundhara Das Vasundhara Das (born 18 August 1977) is an Indian playback singer and former actress. Vasundhara's acting career includes '' Hey Ram'' (Tamil/Hindi), '' Monsoon Wedding'' (English), ''Citizen'' (Tamil), '' Ravana Prabhu'' (Malayalam), '' Lanke ...

Mohit Chauhan Mohit Chauhan (born 11 March 1966) is an Indian playback singer, known for his work in Hindi films. He was a part of the Silk Route (band), Silk Route band. Chauhan has received two Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer and three Zee Ci ...

Mahalakshmi Iyer Mahalakshmi Iyer is an Indian playback singer, best known for her Hindi, Assamese and Tamil songs. She has sung in many other Indian languages as well, including Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati and Kannada. Career Playback singing ...

Kailash Kher Kailash Kher (born 7 July 1973) is an Indian playback singer, live performer, and composer. He sings songs with a music style influenced by Indian folk music and Sufi music. He was inspired by the classical musicians Kumar Gandharva, Hrida ...

Shweta Pandit Shweta Pandit (born 7 July 1986) is an Indian singer and actress who primarily works in Hindi cinema. She has also recorded popular songs for films in Telugu and Tamil and many other Indian languages. Early life She is the younger daughter ...

Naresh Iyer Naresh Iyer (born 3 January 1981) is an Indian playback singer. Born in Mumbai, Iyer is fluent in Tamil, Hindi and Marathi. Naresh Iyer has rendered 2000 film songs in several Indian languages and has several chart hits to his credit. His r ...

These four pairs of singers sang songs based on weekly themes linked to the

(UN)

(MDGs) and were judged by the three judges and the viewers. The viewers voted for their favorite jodi each week. The jodi which got the maximum number of votes was crowned the Jodi of the Week. The jodi that made the biggest impact week after week was proclaimed the Ustaad Jodi. There were no eliminations.

References

Mission Ustaad show: Rehman joins hands with UN, Dutch co
( The Financial Express) Indian reality television series 9X (TV channel) original programming 2007 Indian television series debuts 2008 Indian television series endings Indian music television series