Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007


Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007 is an Indian Television singing competition that premiered on 4 May 2007 and ran until 13 October 2007. It is the 2nd instalment of the "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge" series and the 4th public voting competition in the "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" series. Chronologically, the show is preceded by Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs, however systematically it is followed by Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005. The show features two of the previous mentors, Himesh Reshammiya and Ismail Darbar, and two new mentors to the Challenge series, Bappi Lahiri and Vishal-Shekhar. Shaan did not return to host and was replaced by Aditya Narayan, son of playback singer, Udit Narayan.
The new logo is significantly different from the 2005 logo. It features headphones on a globe to represent itself as an international competition, instead of a previous logo consisting of a portrayal of a duet singing.
On 21 July, the show had topped the television ratings in India for the episode featuring Salman Khan according to Television Audience Measurement.
On 13 October at the Grand Finale, the show broke voting records with a collection of 10,61,44,354 votes worldwide from 181 countries. In the final tally Aneek Dhar was declared the winner with 3,65,89,134 votes, Raja Hasan as the 1st runner-up with 3,52,40,963 votes and Amanat Ali as the 2nd runner-up with 3,43,14,257 votes.

''Gharana'' selection

The Gharana is utilised similarly to a House system used in schools and colleges. The contestants of the gharanas have been chosen by the mentors themselves.
Two of the four previous gharanas that were featured on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 have been replaced – Aadesh Shrivastava's Jai Ho and Jatin-Lalit's Dum have now been replaced with "Josh" and "Hit Squad". The following list represents the initial 32 contestants who were chosen by the mentors and in the order they were introduced.

Yalgaar - [Ismail Darbar]

In addition, there was another Gharana called the Eklavya Gharana – it was a "reserved force" of eight singers. The exact purpose of this Gharana was not mentioned during the initial days of the show but soon it was determined that it basically prevented a Gharana from getting eliminated in the initial rounds. The contestants in this Eklavya Gharana performed on the 2nd episode of the show. Later on, each week two contestants from this Gharana were chosen to join a mentor's Gharana after that mentor has had any of his contestants eliminated the previous week.
The only two contestants who never appeared in the competition after their performance on 5 May 2007 were:
Just as was done in previous Sa Re Ga Ma Pa shows, the idea of themes is featured to determine the contestants' versatility and ability to sing different genres.
The Mahagurus appeared as judges in the semi-finals. They "commented" and decided who the top contestants were on the performance episodes and also decided who got eliminated on the "elimination day" during the initial rounds.
The "Bramhastra" round ran through Week 9. This round basically allowed the public to bring an eliminated contestant back into the competition. The gharana who received the Bramhastra got to choose two eliminated contestants for the finals. Vishal-Shekhar received this Bramhastra and they chose 6 contestants. The six contestants were:
Of the six contestants that were chosen by Vishal-Shekhar, the two contestants with most votes from the public and subsequently elected and brought back into the competition were:
The 15 finalists were announced at the end of the episode broadcast on 29 June 2007. That year, Aneek Dhar and Abhijeet Kosambi, winners of the regional spinoffs, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Bangla and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Marathi, got direct entry as finalists. Their direct entry into the finals caused some controversy that Ismail Darbar had the courage point out. However, after Himesh Reshammiya pleaded with Ismail, the issue dissolved. See Aneek-Abhijit controversy section for further details.
These are the names of the top fifteen finalists listed in order.
Eliminated Contestants:
Contestants are in alphabetical order by last name, then by reverse chronological order of elimination.

Semi-finals













* During the week of 22 June, there was no separate Performance/Elimination episode as the week marked the beginning of the "Chakravyuh" phase. However, eight contestants were eliminated that week.

Finals (Top 14)




In the Agnipariksha round, eliminations are based on public voting. Public voting is done through SMS, telephone or online. Each week, the contestant with lowest votes is eliminated.
Additionally, if all the contestants of a Gharana get eliminated, the Gharana also gets eliminated and subsequently the mentor have to leave the show.
† During the week of 17 August, there was no eliminated contestant. That week's votes were added to the votes for the week of 24 August, and Junaid was then eliminated on the episode airing on 24 August.

Controversies

Aneek-Abhijit controversy

On 29 June, Aditya Narayan announced that Aneek Dhar and Abhijeet Kosambi, the winners of the regional spinoffs of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Bangla and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Marathi, would be getting direct entry as a Top 14 finalist. This was a pre decided qualification as it was a part of their respective prizes of winning the regional contests. The viewers of Marathi and Bangla had already seen and heard this announcement at live telecast on stage when Abhijeet Kosambi and Aneek Dhar had won the respective competitions, so in fact there was no need for any controversy in that case. Yet the mentors did not approve of this saying they should not be allowed to enter the competition in the middle and that they should have come from the beginning. Ismail Darbar tried to walk away from the show stalling the shooting of the program.
In the latter episodes, Abhijeet Kosambi was eliminated with the fewest votes. Aneek Dhar is the only contestant in Himesh Reshammiya's 'gharana'. However Aneek Dhar has been in the Bottom 2 once.
Aneek was also the top contestant thrice in the show and eventually ended up winning it all.

Independence Day controversy

The Independence Day special episode shot on 10 August ran into a controversy when the issue came up of the Pakistani contestants, Junaid, Mussarat and Amanat refused to sing Indian patriotic songs on 15 August special. All work on the sets was stalled for 6 hours. Finally, the Zee TV officials decided that the Pakistani contestants should sing Pakistani patriotic songs as a solution. However, the next week, the three Pakistani singers were the Bottom Three. It was then decided that no contestant would be eliminated that week and the week's votes would be added to the votes of the following week to decide the next elimination.

''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Ek Shaam Taj Ke Naam''

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Ek Shaam Taj Ke Naam was a one-day special episode organised by the SRGMP team as a tribute to the Taj Mahal and also dedicated to request and encourage people to vote for the Taj Mahal as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
As well as performances from the contestants of the season, the special episode also featured performances from contestants of previous SRGMP seasons such as Twinkle Bajpai, Sanchita Bhattyacharya, Diwakar Sharma and Sameer Mohammed.

Miscellaneous Observations