Pawandeep Rajan from Champawat, Uttarakhand, lifted the ‘Indian Idol Season 12’ trophy and took home a cheque of Rs 25 lakh and a Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire after being declared winner at the ‘The Greatest Finale Ever’ of the Sony Entertainment Television reality show late on Sunday night.
An artiste, said a beaming Pawandeep after winning the title, needs a platform where he can showcase his talent to the world and ‘Indian Idol’ is one such “great platform”.
He said: “Being a part of ‘Indian Idol Season 12’ was a dream come true and then being a part of the Top 6 was wonderful, but winning the title is just unbelievable. I still feel like I’m dreaming and cannot come to terms with reality. It’s still sinking in. This is such a big honour for me. I’d like to thank all my fans and the viewers who have voted for me and made me win this honourable title.”
Pawandeep had garnered a lot of praise during the show for being focused on his performance. And he still remembers vividly the first day when he came for the audition.
Speaking about his journey, Pawandeep quipped, “I got to learn a lot of things. I got a family on the show, and we are going to work together. I compose music, can do programming, and also sing. Winning Indian Idol is the first step. After this, the real journey starts. I have got a lot of love from the public. I have got this trophy as a responsibility that I have to take care of. This is our country’s biggest title and I would like to take its name forward.”
Contestants including Pawandeep Rajan, Arunita Kanjilal, Mohd Danish, Shanmukhapriya, Nihal Turao and Sayli Kamble reached the finale and competed to win the title. With over 40 acts and 200 songs, the 12-hour-long ‘Greatest Finale Ever’ episode of Indian Idol 12 had some special guests for its finale episode. The show has started at 12 PM on 15th August and continued till midnight, ending with declaring the winner.
From singers like Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik, Sadhana Sargam, Javed Ali, rapper Mika Singh to Bollywood celebs Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani, Annu Kapoor, actress Soniya Kapoor and many more entertained the audience with their songs and different acts. Not just this, the contestants even paid emotional tributes to the Indian Army, Navy, Airforce and other Defence organisations with their performance.
In a press meet, Sony TV’s programming head Ashish Golwalkar said, “It is a pressure situation. You have to programme 12 hours straight and so it means you have to shoot 3 weeks of content in one go. It is maddening for the editing team, music team, costume team and every other department. But it is also exciting. Like I said, it has never been done before. Maybe this is will mark a new era in reality TV. Coincidentally, this 15th August marks India’s 75th year of independence and Indian Idol will also be programming its 75th episode. This is also the longest-running season of Idol. We are aiming for newer records this time around so the benchmarks will be higher for next year.”
