Submitted by admin on Thu, 2006-02-02 02:58
The latest reality show to be marred in controversy is Sa Re Ga Ma Challenge 2005. For the first time in Indian television history the name of an outlawed extremist group got associated with a programme. The producer of the show claimed that he got threatening calls from ULFA not to vote out a singer from Assam. Though, it's now established that these phone calls were handiwork of some fanatic fans, the show soon slipped into other controversies.
It all started when Nihira, a very talented singer from Mumbai was voted out by public. Her mentor Ismail Durbar walked out of the show saying that he felt suffocated. He came back in the next episose. It's still not clear whether it was stage managed or it was an emotional outburst of the celebrated music director.
"I got upset when Nihira was voted out, as I thought that was a wrong decision," says Durbar.
But as Durbar is now back, he explains why. "Gajendraj Singh, the show's producer came to my house the next morning and tried to convince me for five hours to return to the show. He told me that I was the only person who has always stood by the truth. I said I would return- because I did not want him to suffer for no fault of his. Another reason was that Debojit told me that if I would quit, he would follow me, as he did not have anyone in Mumbai, and he would follow his mentor."
But the drama did not end there. In the next episode when Debojit Saha from Assam got maximum votes from public, the other three challengers walked out. They felt they were better singer than Debojit, but he got more votes because 80 per cent of his votes came from North East.
However, this argument by them does not hold truth. Though Debojit secured 80 per cent of his votes from the North-East and only two per cent from the rest of the centres, it did not mean that he scored lesser number of votes than them from the rest of India. The two percent votes he got from Mumbai were higher in number than what the other three had earned from the same territory. He actually polled the highest number of votes from every region in India.
This plain arithmetic was ignored by the other two music directors who are mentors of the other three contestants. Specially, Himesh Reshmiya has been madly promoting his disciple Vineet. Apart from making Vineet follow his cap style; Reshmiya often comes on stage to enact emotional drama. He has already declared that Vineet is the best among the lot. But the Indian viewers do not seem to agree with him.
Amidst all this drama, Himani Kapoor from Haryana was voted out in the next episode. Debojit Saha, who again got maximum votes from Indian public says he harbours no ill-will against his competitors - Vineet, Himani and Hemchandra - who publicly disapproved of him on the show.
The singer from Silchar, Assam, says, “I couldn’t believe my ears. They were like family to me. Suddenly they began to doubt by capabilities only because I secured the highest number of votes. Is it my fault that people voted for me?"
In the latest episode, which was recorded on Monday Hemachandra from Hyderabad got lowest number of votes. This created a chaotic situation in the studio. Himesh Reshamiya and Adesh Srivastava demanded that votes from home states should not be counted. However, this amounted to clear violation of the rules. Finally, good sense prevailed and Debojit was declared winner. Of the 1 crore 28 lakh votes casted, Debojit got more than 52 lakh votes while Vineet came second with 42 lakh votes. Hemchandra received 32 lakh votes.
Debojit's guru Ismail Durbar is clearly elated over the result while Reshamiya vowed to promote Vineet even more aggressively. So, we can surely expect some more drama. But the million dollar question is: Is anyone directing the show?
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickies/msid-1396540.cms
