Indian Idol

Season 1

The winner of the first season of Indian Idol was Abhijeet Sawant from Mumbai. The season was aired from October 2004 to March 2005 on Sony TV. Amit Sana from Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, was declared the first runner-up, while Rahul Vaidya from Nagpur and Prajakta Shukre from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, placed third and fourth respectively.

The judges for the first season were Anu Malik, Sonu Nigam, and Farah Khan. They retained the same spot for the second season. The first season was hosted by Aman Verma and Mini Mathur.

The winner, Abhijeet Sawant, went on to release his first album Aap Ka Abhijeet. He placed third in Asian Idol, representing India. He also released a successful second album, Junoon, and contributed to the film Ashiq Banaya Apne. He also did some commercials for Spraymint. He started acting with his debut film Lottery, which was released in March 2009 but did not do well at the box office.

Rahul Saxena, who failed to make it to the top 6, was offered a song by Indian Idol judge and director, Farah Khan, in her own film Om Shanti Om. Amit Tandon landed a new role with Ekta Kapoor and Balaji Telefilms. Amit Sana, Rahul Vaidya, and Prajakta Shukre went on to release solo albums.

Rahul Vaidya, the second runner-up, hosted Aaja Mahi Ve on the STAR Plus channel. He also hosted the popular dance show Jhoom India. He contributed to the soundtrack of the film Shaadi No. 1 and was also the part of the winning team, "Shankar's Rockstars", in the musical game show Music Ka Maha Muqqabla. He later became the winner of the reality singing show Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar on the same channel, whereas Abhijeet Sawant was the first runner-up in the same show.

Season 2

The second season aired on Sony TV from 21 November 2005 to 22 April 2006. The winner was Sandeep Acharya. Sandeep died from Jaundice in Bikaner, his home town in December 2013. The first runner-up was N. C. Karunya from Hyderabad, while the other singer from season 2, Anuj Sharma, Amey Date, and Antara Mitra, placed in the third, fourth, and fifth places respectively. Karunya was a favourite amongst the judges and was later declared the unofficial winner of the second season. Neha Kakkar also participated in the second season of Indian Idol.

Menal Jain has since released her solo album Mehram and performed a number of stage shows with Sonu Nigam. She also received an offer from Anu Malik. In addition, Antara Mitra, a regular favourite of Anu Malik, received many playback offers and released a remixed version of "Yeh ishq hai" from Jab We Met, composed by Pritam. Mitra was also a contestant of the music show Junoon and also is recording her solo album. One of her songs was featured in the film Raajneeti.

Monali Thakur sang the song "Zara Zara Touch Me" in the film Race as well as the song "Sexy Lady" (Khaab Dekhe Jhoote Moote). Music director Pritam offered her another chance in the film Golmaal Returns with a song titled "Meow", picturised on Kareena Kapoor. She also has sung in Bengali. She has also sung the song 'Sawaar Loon' from the film Lootera ,'cham cham' from the film baaghi.

Karunya has released his solo album, titled Aapka Karunya. His song "Aane Chaar Aane" appeared in the film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Amey Date was a contestant in the musical game show Music Ka Maha Muqqabla and also participated in the reality singing show Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar.

Season 3

The show's third season aired on Sony TV from 4 May 2007 to 23 September 2007. The winner was Prashant Tamang, who hails from Kolkata in West Bengal and of Nepali origin. The runner-up, Amit Paul, was from Shillong, Meghalaya.

The judges for this season were Anu Malik, Javed Akhtar, Alisha Chinai, and Udit Narayan. The third season was hosted by Hussain Kuwajerwala and Mini Mathur.

Prashant Tamang has since cut a solo album, Dhanyabad, as per contract with Sony. He also conducted a world tour of shows. Suhit Gosain, who finished in the top 14 contestants, appeared in a KitKat chocolate advertisement. Four finalists, Meiyang Chаng, Suhit Gosain, Parleen, and Abhishek, entered into a contract with Sony BMG and released an album named Tu To Na Aayi as a boy band named F4. The band's song Udd Chale became very successful. F4 was also declared "The Next Big Thing" on channel V. Emon Chatterjee from Kolkata and Deepali Kishore released I Love You, composed by Anu Malik, for the film Don Muthu Swami. Emon also hosted a popular show, Royal Bengal Superstar',' on Star Jalsa.

Meiyang Chаng, who placed fifth in this season, hosted the IPL 2009 and also received an offer to act in Badmaash Company, directed by Parmeet Sethi. He hosted the fourth season of Indian Idol with Hussain Kuwajerwala. He also won the dance reality show Jhalak Dikhla Jaa.

6th runner-up Deepali Kishore hosted a musical reality show on Doordarshan. Suhit Gosain hosted a musical reality show on Real Channel by Miditech Pvt. Ltd. & Datari Turner Productions. He also appeared in television commercials including NIIT and Videocon D2H.

Amit Paul sang the song "Pyaar Ki Dastaan" in the film Luck by Chance (starring Farhan Akhtar and Konkona Sen Sharma). He, alongside the third runner-up Ankita Mishra, represented India in the Indian Carnival in Kuwait in 2007.

Season 4

The fourth season of Indian Idol was aired on Sony TV from 19 September 2008 to 1 March 2009. For the first time in Indian Idol history, there were two women among the top three finalists. Sourabhee Debbarma won the competition and became the first female contestant to do so. By doing so, she also won a contract of Rs. 1 crore with Sony Entertainment Television and a TATA Winger. She released an album, Meherbaan, as per a contract with Sony. She also performed a few stage shows around the country and overseas with Sony TV.Kapil Thapa was runner-up while Torsha Sarkar finished third.

The fourth season saw Anu Malik and Javed Akhtar on the hot seats as they took the judges' chair once again for the show. New to this season were singer Kailash Kher and Indian actress Sonali Bendre. The fourth season was hosted by Hussain Kuwajerwala and Meiyang Chаng.

One of the contestants, Bhavya Pandit, received an offer to sing the song "Aaja Lehraate" for the film What's Your Raashee, alongside singer Shaan. She also went on to sing "Rani Main Tu Raja" from the movie Son Of Sardaar. The song became a hit and Pandit received appreciation from the audience.

Season 5

The winner of Indian Idol 5 was Sreeramchandra Mynampati from Hyderabad, 1st south indian to win the title. The fifth season was judged on Anu Malik, along with two new judges:Salim Merchant and Sunidhi Chauhan. The contestants at the Grand Finale were Sreeramchandra, Bhoomi, and Rakesh. The finale was held on 15 August 2010 (which also happens to be the Indian Independence Day). For the first time in Indian Idol, the finale was held between three contestants.

The judges first selected the top 112 contestants from across the country. After several rounds, the judges selected the top 16 contestants. After public voting, a total of 6 were directly given entry to the top 12 (Indian Idol Gala) while out of the remaining 10, only seven were chosen by judges on the basis of their live performances. The selected top 13 competed for the title of Indian Idol 5. The judges were appreciative of the quality of the contestants for this season as compared to previous tournaments.

On the episode aired on 13 May 2010, the top 13 finalists selected by the judges for the Gala Rounds were: Bhoomi Trivedi, Vishwas Rai, Swaroop Khan, Sashi Suman, Manisha Karmakar, Tia Kar, Shivam Pathak, Naushad Ali Kawa, Sreeramchandra, Arpita Khan, Swagata, Meghna Kumar, Rakesh Maini, and Yashraj Kapil.

Vishwas Rai Swagata were eliminated in Gala Round 1, Meghna Kumar in Gala Round 2, Manisha Karmarkar the next week, Yashraj Kapil next and Arpita Khan the week after that. The week after that, the public voted out one Sashi. The next elimination was Naushad Ali Kawa. Tia Kar was subsequently eliminated. Rakesh was evicted the week after, but he was retained by the judges using their "VETO Power". Shivam had to leave next. The last to be eliminated was Swaroop Khan. Thus, the top three were Bhoomi, Rakesh and Sreeramchandra.

Sreeram Chandra had already made his debut in the Telugu movie industry. He also sang a song with Shreya Ghoshal for Salim Suleman Merchant during the course of the season. Swaroop Khan also got the chance to sing a song as the playback singer during the course of Indian Idol 5 before his elimination. Bappi Lahiri gave him this opportunity. Swaroop Khan has also had the chance to sing in PK's 'Tharki Chokro' song.

Season 6

The sixth season aired on Sony TV from 1 June 2012 to 1 September 2012. The winner of the sixth season was Vipul Mehta. The judges liked the performances of all three contestants, but Vipul won the title as the decision was calculated by tabulating votes from the public as well as judge scoring. Vipul received the highest number of votes.

Mini Mathur and Hussain Kuwajerwala were again back to host Season 6. The judges for this season were Anu Malik, Sunidhi Chauhan, and Salim Merchant. Asha Bhosle joined the judging panel after the audition rounds.

On June 23, 2012, the judges selected the top 16 contestants to perform in the Gala Rounds. These contestants were: Amit Kumar, Amitabh Narayan, Amrita Panda, Charit Dixit, Deeksha Piyush, Deepak Maher, Devendra Pal Singh, Kaushik Deshpande, Kritika Tanwar, Poorvi Koutish, Ravi Kumar Mishra, Ritika Raj, Saumya Mishra, Simran Kaur, Sohini Mishra, and Vipul Mehta. The top 3 contestants were Amit Kumar, Devendra Pal Singh and Vipul Mehta.Vipul Mehta was declared as the winner of Indian Idol 6.

Season 7

The show makes a come back on Indian Television after a gap of four years. Sonu Nigam is one of the judges this season. He makes a comeback to the show after a decade. Other judges of the show are Anu Malik and Farah Khan. The hosts of the show are Karan Wahi and Paritosh Tripathi. Along with Karan Wahi he is adding the Potent mix of Comedy and singing.