Indian Idol is an Indian Hindi-language singing reality show of Sony TV. It is an Indian version of the British show Pop Idol and is part of the Indian Idol series. It has aired on Sony Entertainment Television since 2004.[1] Originally produced by Miditech Studios and its iconic producer-brothers, Niret Alva, Nikhil J Alva and Nivedith Alva, the series was an instant success. The brothers produced the first 5 seasons of the series and were instrumental in laying the foundation for its future success.[2]
| Indian Idol | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Reality television |
| Created by | Simon Fuller |
| Based on | Pop Idol |
| Directed by |
|
| Presented by | |
| Judges | |
| Theme music composer | Julian Gingell Barry Stone Cathy Dennis |
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language | Hindi |
| No. of seasons | 14 |
| No. of episodes | 317 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Anupama Mandloi (2010–present) Niret Alva (2005–2009) Nikhil J Alva (2005–2009) |
| Producers | Namit Sharma (2010–present) Ashok (2008–09) |
| Cinematography | Surindra Rao |
| Editor | Kumar Priyadarshi (2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) |
| Camera setup | Nitesh Choudhary |
| Production companies | ARSenic's Business Empire (2010–present) Fremantle Media India Miditech Pvt. Ltd. (2005–2009) Optimystix Entertainment (2004–2005) |
| Original release | |
| Network | Sony Entertainment Television |
| Release | 30 October 2004 – present |
Indian Idol's production and taping take place in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It broadcasts on Saturdays and Sundays and digitally airs on SonyLIV application.
Season 14 was the most recent edition of the show, with Kumar Sanu, Shreya Goshal and Vishal Dadlani being the judges, while one or two guest judges related to Hindi films appeared every week. The season was won by Vaibhav Gupta of Kanpur.
Summary
Season 1
- Judges
- Host
Top 12 Contestants
| Name | Age | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abhijeet Sawant | 23 | Mumbai | Idol | 1st |
| Amit Sana | 21 | Bhilai | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Rahul Vaidya | 17 | Nagpur | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Prajakta Shukre | 16 | Jabalpur | 3rd Runner-up | 4th |
| Ravinder Ravi | 29 | Ludhiana | Eliminated | 5th |
| Aditi Paul | 25 | Chennai | Eliminated | 6th |
| Mukesh Pancholi | 26 | Faridabad | Eliminated | 7th |
| Harish Moyal | 26 | Itanagar | Eliminated | 8th |
| Rahul Saxena | 22 | Ghaziabad | Eliminated | 9th |
| Amit Tandon | 25 | Kolkata | Eliminated | 10th |
| Vishal Kothari | 21 | Mumbai | Eliminated | 11th |
| Priyanka Venkateswar | 17 | Mumbai | Quit | 12th |
Season 2
- Judges
- Host
Top 12 Contestants
| Name | Age | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandeep Acharya | 21 | Bikaner | Idol | 1st |
| N. C. Karunya | 19 | Hyderabad | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Anuj Sharma | 29 | Himachal Pradesh | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Ameya Date | 26 | Mumbai | Eliminated | 4th |
| Antara Mitra | 18 | West Bengal | Eliminated | 5th |
| Meenal Jain | 20 | Indore | Eliminated | 6th |
| Ravi K. Tripathi | 29 | Uttar Pradesh | Eliminated | 7th |
| Panna Gill | 24 | Punjab | Eliminated | 8th |
| Monali Thakur | 20 | Kolkata | Eliminated | 9th |
| Neha Kakkar | 17 | Rishikesh | Eliminated | 10th |
| Yashashree Bhave | 24 | Satara | Eliminated | 11th |
| Sagar Sawarkar | 20 | Mumbai | Eliminated | 12th |
Season 3
- Judges
- Host
Top 13 Contestants
| Name | Age | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prashant Tamang | 24 | Darjeeling | Idol | 1st |
| Amit Paul | 24 | Shillong | Runner-up | 2nd |
| Emon Chatterjee | 17 | Kolkata | Eliminated | 3rd |
| Ankita Mishra | 17 | Kanpur | Eliminated | 4th |
| Meiyang Chang | 24 | Dhanbad | Eliminated | 5th |
| Pooja Chatterjee | 18 | Dhanbad | Eliminated | 6th |
| Deepali Kishore | 18 | Patna | Eliminated | 7th |
| Abhishek Kumar | 20 | Mumbai | Eliminated | 8th |
| Parleen Singh Gill | 19 | Ambala | Eliminated | 9th |
| Charu Semwal | 19 | Dehradun | Eliminated | 10th |
| Smita Adhikari | 24 | Kolkata | Eliminated | 11th |
| Jolly Das | 25 | Kolkata | Eliminated | 12th |
| Richa Aneja | 17 | Punjab | Eliminated | 13th |
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 who hails from Agartala, Tripura 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. Kapil Thapa was runner-up while Torsha Sarkar finished third.
One of the contestants, Bhavya Pandit, received an offer to sing the song "Aaja Lehraate" for the film What's Your Raashee, alongside singer Gautam Mrinaal.[6]
- Judges
- Host
Top 14 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sourabhee Debbarma | Agartala | Idol | 1st[7] |
| Kapil Thapa | Dehradun | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Torsha Sarkar | Bhagalpur | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Rajdeep Chatterjee | Jamshedpur | Eliminated | 4th |
| Remo Ghosh | Dimapur | Eliminated | 5th |
| Bhavya Pandit | Pune | Eliminated | 6th |
| Prasenjit Kosambi | Kolhapur | Eliminated | 7th |
| Bhanu Pratap Singh | Jaipur | Eliminated | 8th |
| Mohit Lawani | Delhi | Eliminated | 9th |
| Kuldeep Singh Chauhan | Banda | Eliminated | 10th |
| Priyanka Negi | Dehradun | Eliminated | 11th |
| Gautam Mrinal | Jamui | Eliminated | 12th |
| Tulika Ganguly | Faridabad | Eliminated | 13th |
| Ananya Mishra | Lucknow | Eliminated | 14th |
Season 5
- Judges
Shreya Ghoshal
- Host
Top 13 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sreerama Chandra | Hyderabad | Idol | 1st |
| Bhoomi Trivedi | Gujarat | Runner-up | 2nd |
| Rakesh Maini | Mumbai | Runner-up | |
| Swaroop Khan | Rajasthan | Eliminated | 4th |
| Shivam Pathak | Gujarat | Eliminated | 5th |
| Tia Kar | Mumbai | Eliminated | 6th |
| Naushad Ali | Rajasthan | Eliminated | 7th |
| Shashi Suman | Patna | Eliminated | 8th |
| Arpita Khan | West Bengal | Eliminated | 9th |
| Yashraj Kapil | Faridabad | Eliminated | 10th |
| Manisha Karmakar | Kolkata | Eliminated | 11th |
| Meghna Kumar | Jhansi | Eliminated | 12th |
| Vishwas Rai | Allahabad | Eliminated | 13th |
Note: Sreerama, Rakesh, and Bhoomi were the top 3. Sreeram was crowned the winner without announcing the 1st and 2nd runner-ups.
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.[8][9][10]
- Judges
- Host
On 23 June 2012, the judges selected the top 16 contestants to perform in the Gala Rounds.
Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vipul Mehta | Amritsar | Idol | 1st |
| Amit Kumar | Amritsar | Runner-up | 2nd |
| Devender Pal Singh | Ludhiana | Runner-up | |
| Poorvi kautish | Eliminated | 4th | |
| Sohini Mishra | Cuttack | Eliminated | 5th |
| Amitabh Narayan | Eliminated | 6th | |
| Deeksha Toor | Delhi | Eliminated | 7th |
| Deepak Maher | Eliminated | 8th | |
| Kaushik Deshpande | Mumbai | Eliminated | 9th |
| Kritika Tanwar | Eliminated | 10th | |
| Charith Dixit | Chandigarh | Eliminated | 11th |
| Ravi Kumar Mishra | Eliminated | 12th | |
| Ritika Raj | Patna | Eliminated | 13th |
| Saumya Mishra | Eliminated | 14th | |
| Simran Kaur | Punjab | Eliminated | 15th |
| Amrita panda | Cuttack | Eliminated | 16th |
Indian Idol Junior Season 1
- Judges
- Host
Top 11 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anjana Padmanabhan | Bengaluru | Idol | 1st |
| Debanjana Karmakar | Kolkata | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Anmol Jaswal | Jammu and Kashmir | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Nirvesh Dave | Ahmedabad | 3rd Runner-up | 4th |
| Sugandha Date | Nagpur | Eliminated | 5th |
| Sonakshi Kar | Kolkata | Eliminated | 6th |
| Priyam Borpatragohain | Assam | Eliminated | 7th |
| Akash Sharma | Haryana | Eliminated | 8th |
| Sankalp Yaduwanshi | Moradabad | Eliminated | 9th |
| Eman Chaudhary | Assam | Eliminated | 10th |
| Aryan Das | Cuttack | Eliminated | 11th |
Indian Idol Junior Season 2
Indian Idol Junior Season 2 started on 30 May 2015 and finished on 6 September 2015.
- Judges
Sonakshi Sinha replaced Shalmali Kholgade
- Host
Top 13 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ananya Nanda | Bhubaneswar | Idol | 1st |
| Nahid Afrin | Assam | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Nithyashree Venkataramanan | Chennai | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Vaishnav Girish | Thrissur | Eliminated | 4th |
| Moti Khan | Rajasthan | Eliminated | 5th |
| Niharika Nath | Agartala | Eliminated | 6th |
| Ranita Banerjee | Kolkata | Eliminated | 7th |
| Sreelakshmi Belmannu | Bangalore | Eliminated | 8th |
| Ajay Brijwasi | Mathura | Eliminated | 9th |
| Yumna Ajin | Vengara | Eliminated | 10th |
| Surendra Singh Panwar | Rajasthan | Eliminated | 11th |
| Vidhi Jaswal | Jammu and Kashmir | Eliminated | 12th |
| Shubhankar | Kolkata | Eliminated | 13th |
Season 9
- Judges
- Host
Paritosh Tripathi
Top 14 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| L. V. Revanth | Visakhapatnam | Idol | 1st[11] |
| Khuda Baksh | Punjab | 1st Runner-up | 2nd[12] |
| PVNS Rohit | Hyderabad | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Maalavika Sunder | Chennai | Eliminated | 4th |
| Mohit Chopra | New Delhi | Eliminated | 5th |
| Tajinder Singh | Faridabad | Eliminated | 6th |
| R P Shravan | Chennai | Eliminated | 7th |
| Manya Narang | New Delhi | Eliminated | 8th |
| Hardeep Singh | Ludhiana | Eliminated | 9th |
| Jeli Kayi | Itanagar | Eliminated | 10th[13] |
| Bharti Gupta | Ghaziabad | Eliminated | 11th |
| Mansi Bhardwaj | Kolkata | Eliminated | 12th |
| Stuti Tiwari | Delhi | Eliminated | 13th |
| Saumya Mishra | Renukut | Eliminated | 14th |
Season 10
- Judges
Javed Ali replaced Anu Malik[14]
- Host
Top 14 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salman Ali | Mewat | Idol | 1st[15] |
| Ankush Bhardwaj | Kotgarh | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Neelanjana Ray | Alipurduar | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Nitin Kumar | Una | 3rd Runner-up | 4th |
| Vibhor Parashar | New Delhi | 4th Runner-up | 5th |
| Kunal Pandit | Mumbai | Eliminated | 6th |
| Renu Nagar | Alwar | Eliminated | 7th |
| Soumya Chakraborty | Kolkata | Eliminated | 8th |
| Avanti Patel | Mumbai | Eliminated | 9th |
| Saurabh Valmiki | Lakhimpur Kheri | Eliminated | 10th |
| Biswajit Mohapatra | Odisha | Eliminated | 11th |
| Krishnakali Saha | Tripura | Eliminated | 12th |
| Indira Das | Kolkata | Eliminated | 13th |
| Sonia Gazmer | Kolkata | Eliminated | 14th |
Season 11
The 11th season started to air on 12 October 2019 on Sony TV. It was being hosted by singer Aditya Narayan.[16] Neha Kakkar has returned as one of the judges on popular demand along with Vishal Dadlani and Anu Malik, who came back to the show as a judge after his suspension from the judging panel for Me Too allegations. He was then replaced by Himesh Reshammiya.[17][18]
- Judges
Himesh Reshammiya replaced Anu Malik[14]
Neha Kakkar
Vishal Dadlani
- Host
Aditya Narayan
Top 16 contestants
| Name | Hometown | Elimination | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunny Hindustani | Bathinda | Idol | 1st[5] |
| Rohit Shyam Raut | Latur | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Ankona Mukherjee | Bankura | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Ridham Kalyan | Amritsar | 3rd Runner-up | 4th |
| Adriz Ghosh | Murshidabad | 4th Runner-up | 5th |
| Shahzaan Mujeeb | Aligarh | Eliminated | 6th |
| Rishabh Chaturvedi | Amritsar | Eliminated | 7th |
| Stuti Tiwari | New Delhi | Eliminated | 8th |
| Jannabi Das | New Delhi | Eliminated | 9th |
| Azmat Hussain | Jaipur | Eliminated | 10th |
| Chetna Bharadwaj | Ghaziabad | Eliminated | 11th |
| Kaivalya Kejkar | Nagpur | Eliminated | 12th |
| Subhadeep Das Chowdhury | Kolkata | Eliminated | 13th |
| Pallav Singh | Ballia | Eliminated | 14th |
| Nidhi Kumari | Jamshedpur | Eliminated | 15th |
| Chelsi Behura | Orissa | Eliminated | 16th |
Season 12
The 12th season started on 28 November 2020 on Sony TV. The grand finale aired from 12 noon to 12 midnight on 15 August 2021.[19] Pawandeep Rajan was declared the winner of the season and Arunita Kanjilal became the 1st Runner-up.[20] This was the longest running season of Indian Idol.
- Judges
- Former judges
Although Vishal Dadlani, Neha Kakkar and Himesh Reshammiya were the original judges, when the shoot shifted out of Mumbai, then Vishal Dadlani, and Neha Kakkar couldn't join and makers replaced them by Anu Malik and Sonu Kakkar.
- Host
- Former Hosts
Aditya Narayan was the original host but Bharti & Harsh, Rithvik and Jay replaced him when he came out to be COVID +ve. Bharti and Harsh replaced him on February 28.
The judges have decided to do a power play for 9 weeks and let the audience decide who they want to see in the Top 8. Elimination will happen after the 9 weeks of power play. This season was extended because the contestants have given so much love and entertainment to the audience in the COVID pandemic. The 9 weeks of power play were completed and Anjali Gaikwad got eliminated.
Top 15 contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pawandeep Rajan | Uttarkhand | Idol | 1st |
| Arunita Kanjilal | Kolkata | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Sayali Kamble Patil | Mumbai | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Mohd. Danish | Muzaffarnagar | 3rd Runner-up | 4th |
| Nihal Tauro | Mangalore | 4th Runner-up | 5th |
| Shanmukha Priya | Visakhapatnam | 5th Runner-up | 6th |
| Ashish Kulkarni | Pune | Eliminated | 7th |
| Sawai Bhatt | Nagaur | Eliminated | 8th |
| Anjali Gaikwad | Ahmednagar | Eliminated | 9th |
| Nachiket Lele | Kalyan | Eliminated | 10th |
| Sireesha Bhagavatula | Visakhapatnam | Eliminated | 11th |
| Anushka Banerjee | Chandigarh | Eliminated | 12th |
| Vaishnav Girish | Thrissur | Eliminated | 13th |
| Samyak Prasana | Delhi | Eliminated | 14th |
| Sahil Solanki | Hisar | Eliminated | 15th |
Season 13
The Ground Auditions started in July 2022. The show started on 10 September 2022.[23] The finale was held on April 2, 2023, with Rishi Singh being declared as the winner of the season along with Deboshmita Roy as the 1st runner up.[24]
- Judges
- Host
- Former Judge
- Guest Hosts
Top 15 Contestants
The judges have decided to do a power play for 4 weeks and let the audience decide who they want to see in the Top 7. Elimination will happen after the 4 weeks of power play. The 4 weeks of power play were completed and Navdeep Wadali got eliminated on February 26, 2023. The last contestant who got eliminated from the show was Senjuti Das on March 25, 2023, leaving the top 6 finalists[25] to compete for the Indian Idol trophy.
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rishi Singh | Ayodhya | Idol | 1st |
| Deboshmita Roy | Kolkata | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Chirag Kotwal | Bhaderwah | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Bidipta Chakraborty | Kolkata | 3rd Runner-up | 4th |
| Shivam Singh | Vadodara | 4th Runner-up | 5th |
| Sonakshi Kar | Kolkata | 5th Runner-up | 6th |
| Senjuti Das | Kolkata | Eliminated | 7th |
| Navdeep Wadali | Amritsar | Eliminated | 8th |
| Kavya Limaye | Vadodara | Eliminated | 9th[a] |
| Vineet Singh | Lucknow | Eliminated | 10th[b] |
| Anushka Patra | Kolkata | Eliminated | 11th |
| Rupam Bharnarhia | Amritsar | Eliminated | 12th |
| Sanchari Sengupta | Kolkata | Eliminated | 13th |
| Pritam Roy | Kolkata | Eliminated | 14th |
| Shagun Pathak | Jharkhand | Eliminated | 15th |
Season 14
Theme of this season is Ek Awaz Lakhon Ehsaas (lit. One Voice, Million Emotion).The season is hosted by Hussain Kuwajerwala and Aditya Narayan (later in episode 21 and 22). Kumar Sanu, Shreya Ghoshal and Vishal Dadlani act as the judges. The finale was held on March 3, 2024, with Vaibhav Gupta being declared winner and Subhadeep Das Chowdhury as 1st runner up.
Top 15 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Status | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vaibhav Gupta | Kanpur | Idol | 1st |
| Subhadeep Das Chowdhury | Kolkata | 1st Runner-up | 2nd |
| Piyush Panwar | Rajasthan | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Ananya Pal | Kolkata | 3rd Runner-up | 4th |
| Anjana Padmanabhan | Mumbai | 4th Runner-up | 5th |
| Adya Mishra | Faridabad | 5th Runner-up | 6th |
| Obom Tangu | Arunachal Pradesh | Eliminated | 7th |
| Dipan Mitra | Kolkata | Eliminated | 8th |
| Utkarsh Wankhede | Nagpur | Eliminatedd | 9th |
| Menuka Poudel | Nepal | Eliminated | 10th |
| Muskan Srivastava | Ghaziabad | Eliminated | 11th |
| Mahima Bhattacharjee | Kolkata | Eliminated | 12th |
| Surender Kumar | Rajasthan | Eliminated | 13th |
| Maithili Shome | Mumbai | Eliminated | 14th |
| Gayathry Rajiv | Kochi | Eliminated | 15th |
Criticism
Sunidhi Chauhan who judged this show's seasons 5 and 6, in her interview with Vicky Lalwani of The Economic Times YouTube channel revealed that this show's makers asked her and other judges to praise every contestant. According to Lalwani since 2022, judges of Indian Idol do not give critical comments or point out flaws in singing after a contestant performed, and they praise everyone, and the audience also gets confused. In 2021, Amit Kumar also expressed the same thing after he appeared as a guest judge, he said that the makers of Indian Idol specifically told him while filming that you have to praise every contestant and not criticize.[27][28] In 2018, a participant Nishant Kaushik revealed on Twitter the suffering and ill-treatment of the people who come for the auditions of this show. He expressed his experience with his Indian Idol audition. He elaborated that, he participated in the 2012 Indian Idol audition, people of this show do not give any service to the participants, and contestants kept standing with no access to food, drinking water, or toilet. Former host of Indian idol Mini Mathur in response to this tweet thread wrote these kinds of things happened in Indian reality shows, that is why she quit doing work in them.[29]
In 2021 many fans alleged the show for showing scripted stories to gain TRP. In the season fans expressed on social media that the love angle of Pawandeep Rajan and Arunita Kanjilal was fake, and makers are deliberately trying to show the love angle.[30] The show frequently alleged of showing fake emotional, drama and sob stories of the contestants. Amid the 12th season viewers slammed makers for altering the performance of Pawandeep Rajan.[31]