Amul STAR Voice of India

Infobox Television
show_name = Amul Star Voice of India


caption = The "Star Voice of India" logo.
format = Interactive Reality Musical Game show
picture_format = 576i (SDTV),
runtime = 52 minutes
creator = Gajendra Singh
director = Gajendra Singh
starring = Shaan
Jatin Pandit
Aadesh Shrivastav
Abhijeet Bhattacharya
Alka Yagnik
Lalit Pandit
opentheme = "Star Voice of India" by Shaan
country = IND
network = STAR Plus
first_aired = 18 May, 2007
last_aired = 24 November, 2007
num_episodes = 2 as of 18 May, 2007
website = http://starvoiceofindia.indya.com/index.html

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. It also featured judges that were on the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series, Aadesh Srivastav, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Alka Yagnik, Lalit Pandit and Jatin Pandit. Shaan, who had previously been hosting Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, hosted the show.

tar Voice of India

Prizes

The prizes offered to the winner were:-

* A contract for a personal album with Big Music
* A Chevrolet Car

tandard 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. :

*Kolkata: Swabhumi 89 C, Maulana Abdul Kalam Avenue (700054) - 29 April
*Mumbai: Bhavans College, Munshi Nagar, Dadabhai Road, Andheri West - 4 May
*Indore: Hotel Fortune Land Mark, Vijaynagar, Indore - 5 May
*Delhi: Shankarlal Hall Delhi University Main Campus - 11 May
*Jaipur: Jai Club, Mahavir Marg, C Scheme, Jaipur - 12 May
*Lucknow: Ravindralaya Auditorium, Charbagh, Lucknow - 18 May

Shortcut to auditions

In addition, there was another way to audition from May 1, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. to May 10, 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 didn't 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 renderedn 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.

* Late Ishmeet Singh Sodhi - Ludhiana, Punjab (Winner)(Deceased 29th July, 2008)
*Harshit Saxena - Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (Runner-up)
*Abhas Joshi - Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh (Jury's Choice)(Wildcard entry)
*Toshi Sabri - Jaipur, Rajasthan(Wildcard entry)
*Mohammed Irfan - Hyderabad,
*Priyani Vani - Indore, Madhya Pradesh(Wildcard entry)
*Abhilasha Venkatachalam - Pune, Maharashtra (Jury's Choice-Female)*
*Sumitra Iyer - Mumbai, Maharashtra
*Mirande Shah - Ahmedabad, Gujarat
*Arshpreet - Ludhiana, Punjab
*Prantik Sur - Kolkata, West Bengal
*Prantika Mukherjee - Kolkata, West Bengal
*Shweta Subramanian - Ottawa, Canada

Galas

In the galas, the contestants were distributed among two teams

The Agni team was hosted by Lalit Pandit and Aadesh Shrivastav and the Prithvi Team was hosted by Abhijeet and Alka Yagnik while Jatin Pandit remained neutral.

* In Gala 1, all the 12 contestants performed on stage. This Gala introduced the viewers to the contestants' voting details.
* In Gala 2 Anil Kapoor and Akshay Khanna were the guest judges and every contestant sang song from Anil Kapoor's films.
* In Gala 3, the boys sang the songs of Kishore Kumar and the girls sang the songs of Asha Bhosle. Amit Kumar and his brother were the guest judges of the day. It was elimination day. Abhas, Prantika, Arshpreet and Prantik were in the danger zone but no one was eliminated.
* In Gala 4, the theme was love and all the contestants sang romantic songs.
* In Gala 5, everyone sang songs of their choice. It was elimination day. Prantika, Prantik and Abhilasha were in the bottom three and Prantika was eliminated.
* In Gala 6, everyone sang the songs of the music director Pritam Chakravarthy as he was the guest judge.
* In Gala 7, singer Sonu Nigam was the celebrity judge and all the contestants sang his songs. It was elimination day. Prantik, Irrfaan, Priyani and Toshi Sabri were in the danger zone and Prantik was eliminated.
* In Gala 8, Mahesh Bhatt, Pooja Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt were the celebrity judges and all the contestants sang songs from their films or from films under the Vishesh Films' banner.
* In Gala 9, all the contestants sang singer Sunidhi Chauhan's songs. It was elimination day and the four contestants who came in bottom 4 were Mirande, Abhilasha, Sumitra and Arshpreet. The latter was eliminated.
* In Gala 10,everyone went to their roots in India as they sang regional songs from their respective regions. The guests were Jimmy Shergill, Preeti Jhangiani and Sonia Mehra, who all came to promote their movie Victoria No. 203.

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:
*Abhaas
*Priyani
*Toshi
*Arshpreet
*Sumitra
*Prantik

On Friday, October 5th, Toshi, 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 lakhs of votes are sent.

Grand Finale

The Grand Finale was held on 24 November, 2007. Ishmeet Singh 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". Sadly, he passed away in a drowning accident on July 29, 2008.

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 Goshal, Kunal Ganjawala, and Pritam.

Contestants

*Aishwariya----(Winner) Announced by Amitabh bachan.
*Anwesha-------(Active - Runner Up: Second Place)
*Alpansh-------(Eliminated)
*Gitashree-----(Eliminated)
*Shailey-------(Eliminated)
*Mansi---------(Eliminated)
*Abeer---------(Eliminated)
*Areeb---------(Eliminated)
*Jayant--------(Eliminated)
*Vyom----------(Eliminated)
*Prakriti------(Eliminated) (Wild Card Entrant)
*Sonia --------(Eliminated) (jury's choice award winner)
*Rigved --------(Eliminated) (Challenger)

Grand Finale

The grand finale took place on 5 April 2008. Amitabh Bachan and Juhi Chawla were the chief guests. Aishwariya was announced as the winner. Both Anwesha and Aishwariya are going to USA for a stage show.

The Grand Finale was hosted by Abhaas Joshi and Shaan.

1st Star Voice of India - Murdered?

The winner of the first series was a turbaned, bearded sikh named Ishmeet Singh. Suspicions were first aroused when news showed that he drowned in a five-star hotel. However, eye-witnesses Vyom and Sumitra confirmed that it was an accident. When Ishmeet's body reached India, Ishmeet's family observed his body and noticed bruises on his chest and blood clots and cuts on Ishmeet's head. The post-mortem report completely ignored these injuries, concluding that the death was caused by drowning. Ishmeet's uncle, Dr Charan Kamal Singh explained that he believed that Ishmeet may have been hit, or beaten to be unconscious, and then thrown into the pool. From July to September, among countless requests by innumerable people and organisations for a formal CBI investigation, nothing has taken place. Thus out of utter desperation and frustration, Ishmeet's father and uncle travelled to the Maldives to conduct their own investigation. Upon their arrival in India, they presented the press with startling evidence. Firstly, none of the 250 staff members of the hotel saw Ishmeet with the "eye-witnesses" in the pool. Also there was a pool attendant up till 4.50 pm, who also never saw Ishmeet. Thus proves the inaccuracy and contradictions of the witnesses' statements.Ishmeet's Uncle and father travelled to the Maldives themeselves to conduct their own investigation, due to the unusual reluctance of the CBI to conduct their own formal investigation. They came back with significant evidence.

Firstly, when Ishmeet was pulled out of the swimming pool of the 5-star hotel, he had all his clothes on, including his turban. He had head and body injuries, cuts and bruises. He also had blood in his oesophagus. When one drowns, the lungs are simply filled with water, preventing gas exchange, resulting in suffocation. However, Ishmeet's alveoli had filled with blood, as the post-mortem report reveals. A website has been made which Ishmeet's family has endorsed, which provides regular updates to news regarding Ishmeet, as well as an online petition, which has a growing number of signatures everyday.

The website address is : http://justiceforishmeet.blogspot.com/

Please help achieve justice by taking part and playing an active role in this movement.

External links

* [http://starvoiceofindia.indya.com/index.html Official Site]