Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005

Elimination rounds

The process had started with elimination rounds by the four mentors: Aadesh Shrivastava (Baghban fame), Himesh Reshammiya (Tere Naam & Aashiq Banaya Aapne fame), Jatin-Lalit (Pehla Nasha fame) and Ismail Darbar (HDDCS fame). The mentors picked one girl and one boy amidst 4 boys and 4 girls who took part during the course of a month. Hence, 16 contestants out of the 48 were eliminated. The 32 remaining contestants consists of 16 boys and 16 girls.

Gharanas

The 32 remaining contestants were later put into different Gharanas (or Groups). Each Gharana had to pick 8 contestants in total from the contestants selected through the auditions, elimination rounds and wildcard entries.

Aadesh Shrivastava's group was the Jai Ho Gharana, Himesh Reshammiya's group was Jai Mata Di Let's Rock Gharana, Jatin Lalit's group was the Dum Gharana and Ismail Darbar's group was the Yalgaar Gharana.

Final 32

From the final 32 round onwards, guest judges like Shiv, Hari, Pandit Jasraj, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Alka Yagnik, Jagjit Singh etc. were invited to comment and judge all the remaining contestants. Each week features a different judge.

Also, from this round onwards, the public was able to vote via SMS or by phone for their favourite singer. Each week, two contestants will be eliminated until the final round.

The only three contestants to have gone through the perfect green card on first day pattern were Vinit Singh, Hemachandra, and Nihira Joshi. Nihira Joshi was the only girl out of all to have been perfect when being chosen by judges. She was also the most consistent participant throughout the competition.

Final 12

From the final 12 onwards, week after week, after entertaining audiences from around the world with some fantastic music, singer by singer got eliminated due to lack of votes from the public.

The final 12 in order of winning with their gharana:

Cast