Created by Gajendra Singh Country of origin India | Directed by Gajendra Singh Running time 52 minutes | |
Starring Shaan
Jatin Pandit
Lalit Pandit
Aadesh Shrivastava
Abhijeet Bhattacharya
Alka Yagnik Opening theme "Star Voice of India" by Shaan | ||
Star Voice of India was an Indian television singing competition that premiered on 18 May 2007 and ended on 24 November 2007. It was the first Indian singing competition produced by STAR Plus. The show was directed by Gajendra Singh, creator of the famous Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series, and produced by Urban Brew Studios. It also featured judges that were on the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series, Aadesh Shrivastava, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Alka Yagnik, Lalit Pandit and Jatin Pandit. Shaan, who had previously been hosting Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. The winner of the show was Ishmeet Singh Sodhi.
Contents
PRIZES
The prizes offered to the winner were:-
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. :
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.
Galas
In the galas, the contestants were distributed among two teams
The Agni team was hosted by Lalit Pandit and Aadesh Shrivastava and the Prithvi team was hosted by Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Alka Yagnik while Jatin Pandit remained neutral.
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:
On Friday, 5 October, Toshi Sabri, 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 Toshi Sabri 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 Punjab. 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, 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, Kunal Ganjawala, and Pritam.
Contestants
Grand Finale
The grand finale took place on 5 April 2008. Amitabh Bachchan and Juhi Chawla 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.