Talent shows have been popular for so long now, what more can someone ask for, the contestants get the chance to showcase their talent, and the viewers get the entertainment. The rollercoaster kind of ride, rooting for the favorite contestant and just enjoying their talent. Due to talent shows, we got to know about artists who deserve to be on the platform. Singers such as Arijit Singh and Jubin Nautiyal etc have tried their luck in talent shows, sadly they did not win but that platform helped them in one way or another. One such show that no one can forget about is Indian Idol. That show has been making a place in everyone’s heart, and even after so many years, the hype is constant. Indian Idol has been airing for more than a decade now, the first season was released way back in 2004.
Since then the popularity has grown so much after the success of Indian Idol other reality television shows started. It is based on American Idol which was released in 2002 and is still going on. After introducing us to a lot of talented people a winner has to be decided. That winner is that one deserving contestant that won through every challenge, was constant for weeks, and even got a place in the heart of the audience and obviously the judges. Indian Idol season 12 was released on 28 November 2020, and that was a great season. After the Covid-19 pandemic, it was refreshing to see an entertaining reality show. So, an article solely based on the Indian Idol season 12 winner and also more information about Indian Idol in general sounds like a great topic to cover. So, let’s get into the details, shall we?
Indian Idol Season 12 Winner
As mentioned, Indian Idol season 12 was released on 28 November 2020 and it was on a great start. Many contestants tried their luck in auditions from all over India, contestants took part in the show from states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand, etc but only some people got selected, and our journey of finding the season 12 winner of Indian Idol started. Season 12 began in 2020 during the month of November and was airing till 15 August 2021, making season 12 of Indian Idol, the longest-running season.
15 contestants were selected from the auditions but only one could be the real winner. A lot of the contestants got eliminated and in the end, there were only 5 people. After a long finale episode consisting of a lot of fun, anticipation, and excitement and also a lot of rocking performances from our top 5, a winner was finally revealed. Pawandeep Rajan is the winner of Indian Idol season 12, and he definitely deserved that, he went through weeks and got the love of fans and audience. The finale episode was special as it aired from 12 noon to 12 at night, some parts were pre-recorded but the winner was announced on live television, and the season finale of Indian Idol season 12 was truly amazing and special. Contestants such as, Arunita Kanjilal, Sayli Kamble, Mohd. Danish, Nihal Tauro, and Shanmukha Priya were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th runners ups respectively.
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Who Is Pawandeep Rajan
Pawandeep Rajan is the winner of Indian Idol season 12, and he won that title at the age of 25, and as of 2022, he is 26 years old. He was born on 27 July 1996 in Champawat which is a small town, consisting of around 4,000 people, it is in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. As with any other musical artist, Pawandeep Rajan also has music in his blood. His father Suresh Rajan also likes to sing, in fact, he sings at local events and functions in his time town Champawat. From him, Pawandeep Rajan got the inspiration to sing, he plays many musical instruments such as guitar, tabla, keyboard, etc. He used to sing at his college fests and got a lot of love and blessings. When Pawandeep Rajan got to know about talent shows, he tried his luck at that. He is also the winner of The Voice in 2015, he won 50 Lakhs INR and also an Alto K10 car and also the contract of releasing his debut song. From there his professional music journey started, and he released his debut song Yakeen in 2015 under Universal Music Group, he was also the brand ambassador of Uttarakhand.
Pawandeep Rajan’s Bollywood journey also started, he released two songs in Aaron’s album, and in 2017, he sang for the movie Romeo N Bullet, in that movie he sang the song Tere Liye. In 2020, he gave the auditions of Indian Idol season 12 and was able to win the show. He got 25 Lakhs and also a car, along with a trophy as the winner of Indian Idol season 12. Pawandeep Rajan talked about his friendship with the other runners up, he said that he felt like whoever had won the trophy would have been fine because it would be his friend only. He said that he feels like they are family and that all the contestants talked fondly of each other. He confessed that he did not feel that great after winning Indian Idol season 12, because he felt like there were more deserving people than him on the show but he is also glad to be a part of this journey. Pawandeep Rajan said that all the contestants of Indian Idol have talked about working together and they will be in contact with each other.
Indian Idol Season 12 Judge And Host
Every talent show needs a judge who is talented in themselves and can find real talent. The judges of Indian Idol have always been really talented, they all have paved the way to the success they have now. Indian Idol season 12 had Anu Malik, Sonu Kakkar, and Himesh Reshammiya as judges earlier Vishal Dadlani and Neha Kakkar were the judges along with Himesh Reshammiya but after the shooting location shifted, and Neha Kakkar and Vishal Dadlani could not come for the shoots due to the long distance and also work, Sonu Kakkar and Anu Malik replaced Vishal Dadlani and Neha Kakkar in Indian Idol season 12. The host is also an integral part of the show, they make the show overall more interesting. Aditya Narayan was the host of Indian Idol season 12 but after he got Covid-19 he could not shoot because of obvious reasons. Due to that reason, Harsh and Bharati Limbachia, Jay Bhanushali, and Ritwik Dhanjani replaced Aditya Narayan.
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Indian Idol Season 12 Top 15
Just like the winner, the contestants who got in the top 15 deserve appreciation, they auditioned and from so many contestants the top 15 were chosen. In the top 15, there were Pawandeep Rajan from Uttarakhand, Arunita Kanjilal from Kolkata, Sayli Kamble from Mumbai, and Mohd. Danish from Muzaffarnagar, Nihal Tauro from Mangalore, Shanmukha Priya from Visakhapatnam, Ashish Kulkarni from Pune, Sawai Bhatt from Nagaur, Anjali Gaikwad from Ahmednagar, Nachiket Lele from Kalyan, Sireesha Bhagavatula from Visakhapatnam, Anushka Banerjee from Chandigarh, Vaishnav Girish from Thrissur, Samyak Prasanna from Delhi, and last but not the least, Sahil Solanki from Hisar. As mentioned, Pawandeep Rajan was the winner, and contestants such as Arunita Kanjilal, Sayli Kamble, Mohd. Danish, Nihal Tauro, and Shanmukha Priya were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th runners respectively of Indian Idol season 12.
Indian Idol Season 12 Prize
In all the reality television shows a prize is granted to the winner of that season, and in season 12 Pawandeep Rajan was the winner, so how much did he get? Pawandeep Rajan got 25 Lakhs INR and also a car, along with the contract to make music under some label, as the winner of Indian Idol season 12. The first winner of Indian Idol season 1, Abhijit Sawant got 50 Lakhs INR. Some winners of Indian Idol also got 1 Crore INR. Pawandeep Rajan also got to participate in Superstar Singer season 2 as captain, he participated in the show along with his fellow contestants of season 12 such as Sayali Kamble, Arunita Kanjilal, and Mohd Danish. Salman Ali, who is the winner of Indian Idol season 10 also got to participate in Superstar Singer season 2. Every captain got a paycheck of 40,000 to 50,000 INR per episode.
Indian Idol Season 12 Controversies
Every show is a part of some sort of controversy, it can be regarding anything like credibility or something. Indian Idol is also not untouched by controversies, and in season 12 the show has been in so many controversies, the show was criticized for the fact that the show only focuses on fake stories and poverty. The contestants of the show have talked about the fact that the makers needed sob stories like stories on poverty and pain to increase the TRP of the show, and they would not focus on the real talent. Abhijeet Sawant who is the winner of Indian Idol season 1 has also said that the show only focuses on poverty and fake love and sad stories and that the real talent gets ignored.
It is the tendency of reality shows to show poverty and different stories to spice up the show and people would watch the show for sympathy or something Indian Idol has always been criticized for that. Sayali Kamble from season 12 appeared to look like she comes from a financially unstable background but then a video of her was viral, and in that video, she did not look like she came from poverty. The judges of the show have also talked about their dissatisfaction with everything. Sunidhi Chauhan and Amit Kumar who are popular playback singers and they also used to judge Indian Idol, said that the makers would ask them to praise the contestants, even if they did not enjoy the performance.
They said that they were not able to fully express what they felt about the song and the singers, Sunidhi Chauhan and Amit Kumar could not give real opinions and were asked to just praise the contestants no matter how their performance was in reality. Salim Merchant, who is also a singer and composer who used to judge Indian idols, also weighed in on the argument and said that the makers would ask him to just praise the contestants, and he was not able to give any real opinion on the performance.
Sonu Nigam and Kumar Sanu also said that just praising the contestants is not a good thing to do. Judges should help them find their weak and strong points. Kumar Sanu supported Sonu Nigam. Aditya Narayan and Manoj Muntashir on the other hand praised the show and the makers. In season 12, Aditya Narayan was accused of using a casteist slur and Raj Thackeray’s party MNS asked for a public apology by Aditya Narayan and also the channel, Aditya Narayan did issue an apology via his social media platforms.
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The heat wave also came on the contestants of Indian Idol as the show was also criticized for not bringing in new faces as most of the contestants were part of some other reality show before appearing on Indian Idol. There was also news where some fans said that there was an unfair elimination in the show, contestants such as Ashish Kulkarni, Anjali Gaikwad, and Sawai Bhatt were eliminated and fans felt that they were good performers and it was unfair that they were eliminated. Shanmukha Priya who was in the top 15 of Indian Idol season 12 was trolled on the internet for allegedly ruining a classic Kishore Kumar song. Singer, Sona Mohapatra accused Anu Malik of molestation in the #me too movement, so when Anu Malik appeared on the show the people were not happy.
As mentioned, fake love stories are also a thing in Indian Idol. In season 12, Pawandeep Rajan and Arunita Kanjilal were made to look like they were together, so many moments would get added to make it look like they liked each other but in reality, they are just good friends, Aditya Narayan also said that their relationship was a fake thing between those contestants. In the show, Aditya Narayan and Neha Kakkar could also be seen shipping together. They both would often flirt with each other on television and even said that they were going to be married but the relationship between Neha Kakkar and Aditya Narayan was faked for TRP. The ongoing season 13, also got in the heat when a contestant was eliminated, Rito, who participated in season 13 was eliminated but the fans were not happy and they tried to cancel the show.
Indian Idol Past Winners
Indian Idol has been airing since 2004 and so far a lot of people have participated in the show and also won the show. In season 1 which was released in 2004, Abhijit Sawant was the winner. Sandeep Acharya was the winner of Indian Idol season 2, Prashant Tamang won Indian Idol season 3, and Sourabhee Debbarma was the winner of Indian Idol season 4. Sreerama Chandra Myanampati won season 5, Vipul Mehta was the winner of season 6, and Anjana Padmanabhan won season 7. Ananya Sritam Nanda was the winner of season 8, LV Ravnath won season 9, Salman Ali was the winner of season 10, Sunny Hindustani won season 11 and Pawandeep Rajan was the winner of Indian Idol season 12. Season 13 is currently airing right now, so a winner is yet to be revealed.
Where To Watch Indian Idol Online
Indian Idol is available on the SonyLiv app and the new episodes air on television and the app simultaneously.