''Padutha Theeyaga'' (transl: I will sing sweetly) is an Indian

Telugu-language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian langua ...

Reality television 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 ...

singing show that is aired on

ETV Telugu ETV is an Indian Telugu-language general entertainment pay television channel. The channel was launched on 27 August 1995 focusing on the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a part of the ETV Network owned by Ramoji Group. It is the second-oldest T ...

, a channel of

ETV Network ETV Network is a network of Telugu language news and entertainment satellite television channels in India. It is based in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It also had some non Telugu-language satellite television channels. All non- Telugu satel ...

, a part of Ramoji Group. The program seeks to discover the best singing talent in

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of ...

. The show used to be hosted by

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (4 June 1946 – 25 September 2020), commonly known as SPB or Balu, was an Indian playback singer, television presenter, actor, music composer, dubbing artist, and film producer. He is widely regarde ...

, a legendary

Playback singer A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync the ...

from the state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is the first of its kind in

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

. The main objective of this program is to bring out emerging singing talent into spotlight. Started in the year 1996 "Padutha Theeyaga" has so far completed more than 1100 episodes. It helped identify and establish singers such as

Mallikarjun Mallikarjun is an Indian playback singer and composer who mostly sings in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada language films. After emerging as one of the semi-finalists in the first edition of singing competition Padutha Theeyaga, he went on to becom ...

, Usha, Smitha, Karunya,

Hemachandra Hemacandra was a 12th century () Śvetāmbara Jaina acharya, ācārya, scholar, poet, mathematician, philosopher, yogi, wikt:grammarian, grammarian, Law, law theorist, historian, Lexicography, lexicographer, rhetorician, logician, and Prosody ...

Gopika Poornima Gopika Poornima is an Indian singer who mostly sings for Telugu language, Telugu, Tamil language, Tamil, and Kannada language films. She became popular with the singing competition ''Padutha Theeyaga''. Her husband Mallikarjun is also a singer ...

, Kousalya, Venu,

Geetha Madhuri Geetha Madhuri is an Indian playback singer and voice artist. Madhuri has sung over 2300 songs in several languages including Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. She is the recipient of numerous Nandi Awards and Filmfare Awards. Pe ...

, Malavika, Anjana Soumya, Parthasaradhi, Sandip, Madhavi Bhamidipati, Nitya Santhoshini, Sandeep Kurapati, Sri Sivathmika Medicherla and many more.

Overview

The program was first started in 1996 and continued till 2000 with 4 successful seasons. Again in 2007 the show restarted with new format and it continued till 20 September 2020; due to the unfortunate death of

, it was discontinued. However, from 27 September 2020, the Grand finale episodes of all seasons of the show were aired on the title of "Alanati Apurupalu". On 4 June 2021 an announcement was made, saying that the show will be hosted by S. P. Charan and will be judged by Chandrabose,

Sunitha Upadrashta Sunitha Upadrashta, known mononymously as Sunitha, is an Indian playback singer and a voice actor who primarily works in Telugu films. She is a recipient of nine Nandi Awards and two Filmfare Awards South in various categories. She also recei ...

and

Vijay Prakash Vijay Prakash (born 21 February 1976) is an Indian Playback singer and Music director from Karnataka. He has given his voice for predominantly Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu language films, in addition to Hindi, Malayalam and Marathi language ...

. The new series debuted on

ETV ETV may stand for: Television * Educational television, the use of television in education * Enhanced TV, an interactive television application specification Africa * e.tv, South Africa * ETV (Ethiopia), Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation * ETV G ...

on 5 December 2021.

Old series 1 (1996)

Top 4 Contestants:-

Old Series 2 (Junior 1998)

Top 4 Contestants:-

Series 1 (2007)

The program was restarted again in 2007 with new format it was for adult contestants. They selected 3 or 2 singers from each district of

United Andhra Pradesh United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

and gave voice of the district title to one among them and started the series with voice of the district title holders. Rajesh Kumar from Ananthapur and Lipsika from Khammam shared the first two places. Finals was judged by

and guest judge was

Devi Sri Prasad Gandham Sriprasad (2 August 1979), known as Devi Sri Prasad or more commonly by his initials DSP, is an Indian music composer, singer, and lyricist primarily known for his work in Telugu cinema, along with Tamil cinema. He has received numerous ...

. Megastar

Chiranjeevi Konidela Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an Indian actor, philanthropist and former politician known for his work in Telugu cinema. Known as the "Mega Star", he is widely regarded as one of the most succe ...

made a special appearance in the finals and gave prizes to the contestants. The Grand Finale was conducted in

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

. Winner Rajesh Kumar won Cash prize of Rs.10,00,000 and runner Lipsika won Rs.5,00,000. The prize money was sponsored by Suvarna Bhoomi. Grand finals was completed on 18 October 2007.

Series 2 (2008)

This season was for the junior contestants with Lakshmi Meghana, Ganesh Revanth, Anjani Nikhila, Raghawendra as finalists.Lakshmi Meghana is the winner.

Series 3 (2008)

This season was sponsored by EXO-Dishwash. In this season, Sairamya got first prize., Damini got second prize, and Sarathchandra Kalahasti and Nuthana got equal marks and the two were equally given third place.

Series 4 (2009)

This season was also for the adult contestants. Ivaturi Harini, Nandibhatla Tejaswini, Rohit and Sai Charan were the finalists and these contestants stood in the first, second and the third places respectively and the third place was shared by Rohit and Sai Charan together.

Series 5 (August 2012 - January 2013)

This season had Sharath Santosh, Surya Karthik, Praveen kumar and Charumathi Pallavi as the finalists. Out of them Praveen was the first, followed by Charumathi Pallavi, Sharath and Karthik in that order. The season 5 finale had the great drummer Sivamani as the chief guest. Even this season was for adults.

Series 6 (February 2013 - July 2013)

Had kids of age 6–15.The winner was Parameshwara Rao.

Series 7 (August 2013 - March 2014)

Was held at USA. The winner was Arjun Addepalli.

Series 8 (March 2014 - October 2014)

Was for children of age 9–14. The winner was K.S.Abhiram. The second position was occupied by Sarvepalli Sreya, the third Geethika and fourth Maanya Chandran. Abhiram was good at his tone, while Sarvepalli was the one who was versatile and expressive in her singing. Geethika had a good voice and Maanya, a good range. This was a very good batch with a tough competition among the participants.

Series 9 (November 2014 - June 2015)

It was also in USA, and was for ages 9–13. All participants were females. The final 8 were Meghana Pothukuchi (the winner), Neha Dharmapuram, Vishnupriya Kothamasu (finalist), Sumedha Vadlapudi (pre-finalist), Sneha Mokkala (finalist), Lasya Ravulapati, Nikhitha Pathapati (finalist), and Ananya Penugonda. 2015 Paadutha Theeyaga Selections Process * 15 February 2015: Last Date for submitting Audition Songs(1 Classical style and 1 Fast Beat) * 28 February 2015: An email sent from PT team stating that the entries had been received and sent to Balu garu for finalizing the list of 21 contestants * 13 April 2015: Notifications to the final 21 contestants sent * 15 April 2015: Requested Copy of Birth Certificate from the finalists * 25 April 2015: Confirmation email sent * 12 May 2015: Sent a list of 13 songs which would cover 24 episodes to each participant. Next batch of 6-7 songs will be given in the second week of July. * 16 May 2015: Request sent to participants for full details (Full Name, City, State) * 12–17 May 2015: Lyrics requested for all the songs from participants. PT team corrected them and emailed back *29 May-6 June 2015: Half-hour Skype training sessions offered by PT team for the first four songs in the list. Training involves only fine tuning and pitch setting.

Series 10 (June 2015 - March 2016)

Vamsi, Priya, Sai Jagadhatri, Shivani and Swathi are all winners.

Series 11 (March 2016 - October 2016)

Was in the US, and was for ages 13–16. Participants consisted of 15 females and 2 males. The final five were Akhila Mamandur (Winner, $10,000) from Houston, TX; Abhijith Vemulapati (Runner-up, $5,000) from Woodland, CA; Bhavna Ravichandran (Finalist, $2,500) from Greensboro, NC; Supraja Kadagandla (Finalist, $2,500) from Olympia, WA; and Priya Kanajam (Pre-Finalist, $1300) from Minneapolis, MN.

Series 12 (2017)

Top 18 Contestants:-

Series 13 (2017)

Top 18 Contestants:-

Series 14 (2018)

Top 18 Contestants:-

Series 15 (2018)

Top 18 Contestants:-

Series 16 (2019)

Top 18 Contestants:-

Series 17 (2019)

From this season the program telecasting time was changed from 9:30 PM Sunday to 11:00AM Sunday. Top 13 Contestants:-

Series 18 (2020)

Top 18 Contestants:-

Padutha Theeyaga Finalists

References

{{Reflist Indian reality television series Telugu-language television shows ETV Telugu original programming