Idea Star Singer
Encyclopedia
Idea Star Singer is a popular Malayalam
music reality-television competition, broadcast on the Malayalam channel Asianet
and is sponsored by Idea Cellular Limited
. The current season of the show is aired from 8:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m (IST
) [8.00 pm to 9.30 pm (IST
) from Monday, 19th July 2010],, Monday through Friday. The program aims to discover the best singer in Kerala
in the age group of 15–35 years and the winner is determined by the viewers based on the contestants skill in singing
and entertainment
.Text messages are sent by the shows's audience to vote for the best performing participant and a small weightage of this score is considered for a candidate to be shortlisted to next round. The show also features a panel of judges who are prominent personalities in the Malayalm music industry and they offer scores and evaluations of performance to the contestants in every stage of the competition.
, the chief judge on the show was Malayalam music director M. Jayachandran
accompanied by a panel of veteran musicians like K. S. Chithra
, M. G. Radhakrishnan
, Tippu, Deepak Dev, Jassie Gift
, Chithra Iyer,Sugeetha Menon and many other pioneers from the music industry.The show was co-hosted by singers Vidhu Prathap, Biju Narayanan and Rimi Tomy.Out of approximately 7,000 contestants participating from various states of the country the season was won by Arun Raj in the male category and Kavita Jayaram in the female category. The winners received Rs. 1 lakh inprize money, a contract for playback assignments in Jayachandran's upcoming film projects, a deal with Satyam Audios and deals for performing at concerts abroad.This season of the show was produced by Prathap Nair
, a winner of the Miss Kerala pageant. In this season, the prize was an opportunity to sing in the next project by film director Vinayan
, and an apartment
in Cochin worth Rs
40,00,000. The judging panel featured playback singer M. G. Sreekumar
, music director Sharath, and Indian pop
singer Usha Uthup
. A fourth judging spot featured different celebrity guests all of whom are people of importance in the Malayalam film industry. The 2007 season was inaugurated by popular Malayali actor Mohanlal
and more than 20,000 hopeful singers applied to participate in this season. Only 45 contestants were short-listed from the 100 contestants that made it through to the preliminary round, and this was followed by a televised elimination round on based on audience's text message votes and the decision of the judging panel. During the season, contestants were involved in special grooming and choreography sessions.
The final round of the competition was held on 19 April 2008 and the final votes via text messages were close to 500,000 .Najim Arshad from Thiruvananthapuram
won the final round, bagging the brand new flat which was sponsored by The Confident Group. The first runner-up was Durga Viswanath and she got a Ford Fiesta car sponsored by The Alukkas Jewellery Group. The second runner-up was Thushar M K and the third runner-up was Arun Gopan.
, who also performed a song, along with performances by M.G. Sreekumar, Ouseppachan
, P. Unnikrishnan, and L.R. Eswari. The inaugural episode started with a prayer and song by Najim Arshad, who won the previous season of the show.
85 contestants competed in the auditions round, out of which only 50 contestants were selected. In this season,two prizes were awarded, one each for a male and female contestant. The prize was an an apartment either Thiruvananthapuram
or Dubai
City, each valued at Rupees 1 crore
sponsored by the Confident Group. The main panel of judges was changed to introduce Ouseppachan
, P. Unnikrishnan and a spot for a different celebrity guest judge for each week. At the start of the season M.G. Sreekumar who was a judge in the previous season was retained in the main panel of judges, but he was later removed, and Sharreth
and Usha Uthup
from the previous season were called back upon popular demand. The show was initially hosted by Ramya Raveendran but Ranjini Haridas returned to host the show under popular demand from the viewers, and this led to Ranjini becoming an iconic part of the show in its future seasons.
The final round of this season was aired live on 25 April 2009 from the Chandrashekaran Nair Stadium, Trivandrum and it was hosted by Ranjini Haridas and Vani Jayaram (a contestant from the 2007 season) a held at The special chief guest for the finale was Music Director MS Viswanathan.The 2008 season was was won by Vivek Anand and Sonia in the male and female winner categories respectively. The first runner-up was Rahul R Laxman and he was presented with 101 tolas
of gold sponsored by Josco Jewellers. The fourth prize of Rs. 2 Lac went to Gayathri. Consolation prizes were given to Jins Gopinath and Prasobh.
But due to shooting and other problems, Mohanlal wasn't able to turn up leaving Ganagandharvan Padma Shri Dr K.J Yesudas to hand over the prize money.
votes are attributed before and after on each contestants reaching the 'danger zone' leading to their elimination. It is alleged that the SMS votes received are not added to decide the ranking of the contestants. The number or the percentage of SMS votes received by each contestants are kept private from the viewers of the show. Since the channel has its reach over 60 countries including the Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka
, China
, South East Asia, Middle East
, Europe
, USA, Singapore
and the lower half of the former Soviet Union
at various time zones, the SMS voting end-time was initially not announced. Asianet later clarified after the eighth stage that SMS voting deadlines are based on Indian Time.
According to Asianet sources, for the Grand Finale, weightage of SMS was just 5% of overall score with judges' score attributing the rest 95%.
Every elimination round begins with the presentation of a few candidates as fallen into danger zone. A candidate falls into danger zone if the channel declares that person has not got either sufficient scores or enough votes. The elimination round is always presented as an emotional event where often the judges and participants end up crying. Often the judges use the emotional environment to persuade the audience to vote.
He also repeatedly refers to the show's attempts to move the audience emotionally as "pornographic". "The show," he writes, "tries so hard to squeeze emotions out of you. They play footage in slow motion with sad music in the background, in an attempt to move us. The only moving it did for me was pushing me off the couch and into the kitchen. There are those 'special' episodes which, again, want to tug at our heartstrings. They show off people with disabilities and try to elicit our sympathy in the most obvious, and unintentionally insensitive ways. I suppose we do feel sympathy that they're on the show."
Shenoy is especially critical of the show's host Ranjini Haridas. "Ranjini is painful to watch and hear. Apart from how her fake laughs and smiles are an assault on the senses. I find the way she tries to comfort the participants after they receive their scores both amusing and extremely stupid. "66... ah, it's an... okay score. You can do better. Chalta hai." Your stupid auntie can say that to you after you mess up an exam paper. An obnoxious thirty year old woman with a fake laugh and an even faker accent cannot. And especially not on national television."
Fans of the show have repeatedly written off Shenoy's articles against the show as the ravings of a 'hater', one response letter saying that he "find(s) faults with everything for no reason". Shenoy responded to this with a single sentence: "Point that statement at the judges of the show, please."
Malayalam language
Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...
music reality-television competition, broadcast on the Malayalam channel Asianet
Asianet
Asianet Communications Limited is an Indian media conglomerate jointly owned by STAR TV and Jupiter Entertainment. Formed in 1991 and headquartered in the city of Thiruvananthapuram in the south Indian state of Kerala, the company owns several television channels including Asianet, the first...
and is sponsored by Idea Cellular Limited
Idea cellular
Idea Cellular, usually referred to as Idea, is an Indian wireless telecom company based in Mumbai, India. Idea is the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India, in revenue terms, and recorded of over 98.4 million customers as of August 2011....
. The current season of the show is aired from 8:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m (IST
Indian Standard Time
Indian Standard Time is the time observed throughout India and Sri Lanka, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments, although DST was used briefly during the Sino–Indian War of 1962 and the Indo–Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971...
) [8.00 pm to 9.30 pm (IST
Indian Standard Time
Indian Standard Time is the time observed throughout India and Sri Lanka, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments, although DST was used briefly during the Sino–Indian War of 1962 and the Indo–Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971...
) from Monday, 19th July 2010],, Monday through Friday. The program aims to discover the best singer in Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
in the age group of 15–35 years and the winner is determined by the viewers based on the contestants skill in singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
and entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
.Text messages are sent by the shows's audience to vote for the best performing participant and a small weightage of this score is considered for a candidate to be shortlisted to next round. The show also features a panel of judges who are prominent personalities in the Malayalm music industry and they offer scores and evaluations of performance to the contestants in every stage of the competition.
2006
Starting out in 2006 along the lines of Indian IdolIndian Idol
Indian Idol is an adaptation of the Pop Idol format. It started airing in India with the first season in 2004-2005 and followed that with second , third and fourth seasons...
, the chief judge on the show was Malayalam music director M. Jayachandran
M. Jayachandran
M. Jayachandran is a film score composer, singer and musician in the Malayalam film industry. He has won Kerala State Film Awards for best music director in 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2010, maximum awards won by any music director. He also won the state award for best male singer in 2005...
accompanied by a panel of veteran musicians like K. S. Chithra
K. S. Chithra
K. S. Chithra often credited as Chithra , is an Indian playback singer who has made her mark in the Indian music playback industry. Popularly known as Chinna Kuyil of South India, she has lent her voice to Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Badaga and Punjabi films...
, M. G. Radhakrishnan
M. G. Radhakrishnan
M. G. Radhakrishnan was a senior music director and Carnatic vocalist from Kerala. He is highly regarded as one of the most successful light music and film music composer in Malayalam.- Personal life :M. G...
, Tippu, Deepak Dev, Jassie Gift
Jassie Gift
Jassie Gift is a Malayalam film music composer and singer from Thiruvananthapuram, India. He became famous after his song "Lajjavathiye" in the film 4 the people.-Biography:...
, Chithra Iyer,Sugeetha Menon and many other pioneers from the music industry.The show was co-hosted by singers Vidhu Prathap, Biju Narayanan and Rimi Tomy.Out of approximately 7,000 contestants participating from various states of the country the season was won by Arun Raj in the male category and Kavita Jayaram in the female category. The winners received Rs. 1 lakh inprize money, a contract for playback assignments in Jayachandran's upcoming film projects, a deal with Satyam Audios and deals for performing at concerts abroad.This season of the show was produced by Prathap Nair
2007
In 2007, Idea Star Singer returned with an improved show format and was hosted by Ranjini HaridasRanjini Haridas
Ranjini Haridas born on 23rd April 1980 in Kochi, Kerala, is a television anchor, leading model and former Miss Kerala.-Education:She was educated at Choice School, Cochin till the 12th grade and then at St. Teresa's College, Cochin. At the age of 21 she went to work for an IT-BPO Call centre in...
, a winner of the Miss Kerala pageant. In this season, the prize was an opportunity to sing in the next project by film director Vinayan
Vinayan
Vinayan is an Indian film director, mainly of Malayalam movies. He started his career with the film Super Star, in which he used a Mohanlal look-alike in the lead role....
, and an apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
in Cochin worth Rs
Indian rupee
The Indian rupee is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India....
40,00,000. The judging panel featured playback singer M. G. Sreekumar
M. G. Sreekumar
M. G. Sreekumar is a two-time National Award-winning Indian playback singer and music director who works in Malayalam cinema. With a career of over 25 years, he is one of the prominent male singers in the Malayalam film industry. He is known for matching voice with Malayalam actor Mohanlal. He has...
, music director Sharath, and Indian pop
Indian pop
Indian pop music , often known as Indian-Pop, Hindi Pop, Indipop or Indi-pop, refers to pop music in India. Pop music really started in the South Asian region with the famous playback singer Ahmed Rushdi's song ‘Ko-Ko-Korina’ in 1966...
singer Usha Uthup
Usha Uthup
Usha Uthup is a popular Indian pop, jazz and playback singer. She is well known for popular hits in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.She started her Bollywood playback career, when she sang an English verse in hit song, "Dum maro dum"" in Hare Rama Hare Krishna, and went on work with music...
. A fourth judging spot featured different celebrity guests all of whom are people of importance in the Malayalam film industry. The 2007 season was inaugurated by popular Malayali actor Mohanlal
Mohanlal
Mohanlal Vishwanathan Nair , known mononymously as Mohanlal , is a National Award-winning Indian actor, producer, singer and writer who is well known for his versatile and natural acting in Indian cinema & hence widely known as the Universal Star...
and more than 20,000 hopeful singers applied to participate in this season. Only 45 contestants were short-listed from the 100 contestants that made it through to the preliminary round, and this was followed by a televised elimination round on based on audience's text message votes and the decision of the judging panel. During the season, contestants were involved in special grooming and choreography sessions.
The final round of the competition was held on 19 April 2008 and the final votes via text messages were close to 500,000 .Najim Arshad from Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...
won the final round, bagging the brand new flat which was sponsored by The Confident Group. The first runner-up was Durga Viswanath and she got a Ford Fiesta car sponsored by The Alukkas Jewellery Group. The second runner-up was Thushar M K and the third runner-up was Arun Gopan.
2008
This season of Idea Star Singer was flagged off by Malayalam action hero Suresh GopiSuresh Gopi
Suresh Gopinathan Nair , often credited as Suresh Gopi , is an Indian film actor who works mainly in Malayalam cinema; he is famous for his roles in police dramas. He is noted for his leading roles as much as his character roles...
, who also performed a song, along with performances by M.G. Sreekumar, Ouseppachan
Ouseppachan
Ousephachan is a National Award, Filmfare Award and Kerala State Film Award-winning Indian music director who sets scores for Malayalam films. He is one of the most sought-after musicians in the Malayalam film industry.-Biography:...
, P. Unnikrishnan, and L.R. Eswari. The inaugural episode started with a prayer and song by Najim Arshad, who won the previous season of the show.
85 contestants competed in the auditions round, out of which only 50 contestants were selected. In this season,two prizes were awarded, one each for a male and female contestant. The prize was an an apartment either Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...
or Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
City, each valued at Rupees 1 crore
Crore
A crore is a unit in the Indian number system equal to ten million , or 100 lakhs. It is widely used in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan....
sponsored by the Confident Group. The main panel of judges was changed to introduce Ouseppachan
Ouseppachan
Ousephachan is a National Award, Filmfare Award and Kerala State Film Award-winning Indian music director who sets scores for Malayalam films. He is one of the most sought-after musicians in the Malayalam film industry.-Biography:...
, P. Unnikrishnan and a spot for a different celebrity guest judge for each week. At the start of the season M.G. Sreekumar who was a judge in the previous season was retained in the main panel of judges, but he was later removed, and Sharreth
Sharreth
Sujith Vasudevan I, better known by his stage name Sharreth , is a music director and singer.He began by composing film scores mainly for Malayalam films, but has gone on to compose for Tamil and Telugu films too. Most recently, he scored the music for the Tamil-Telugu bilingual 180.He won the...
and Usha Uthup
Usha Uthup
Usha Uthup is a popular Indian pop, jazz and playback singer. She is well known for popular hits in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.She started her Bollywood playback career, when she sang an English verse in hit song, "Dum maro dum"" in Hare Rama Hare Krishna, and went on work with music...
from the previous season were called back upon popular demand. The show was initially hosted by Ramya Raveendran but Ranjini Haridas returned to host the show under popular demand from the viewers, and this led to Ranjini becoming an iconic part of the show in its future seasons.
The final round of this season was aired live on 25 April 2009 from the Chandrashekaran Nair Stadium, Trivandrum and it was hosted by Ranjini Haridas and Vani Jayaram (a contestant from the 2007 season) a held at The special chief guest for the finale was Music Director MS Viswanathan.The 2008 season was was won by Vivek Anand and Sonia in the male and female winner categories respectively. The first runner-up was Rahul R Laxman and he was presented with 101 tolas
Tola
Tola was one of the Judges of Israel whose career is documented in Judges 10:1-2. Tola, the son of Puah and the grandson of Dodo from the tribe of Issachar, judged Israel for twenty-three years after Abimelech died and lived at Shamir in Mount Ephraim, where he was also buried.Of all the Biblical...
of gold sponsored by Josco Jewellers. The fourth prize of Rs. 2 Lac went to Gayathri. Consolation prizes were given to Jins Gopinath and Prasobh.
2009
Idea Star Singer returned on air for its fourth season in 2009. The grand prize was a villa valued at Rs 1 crore villa sponsored by Travancore Builders. The Grand Finale was held on 1 August 2010 at Chandrashekaran Nair Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram and it was judged by S.P.Balasubramanyam, M.G.Sreeekumar, K.S.Chithra and Sarath. The five contestants who made it to the finale were Joby John, Preethi Warrior, Sreenath, Anju Joseph and Vidhya Shankar. The season was won by Joby John. Sreenath and Preethi were selected as the first and second runner up respectively. Anju Joseph and Vidya Sankar who were eliminated based on SMS votes in the grand finale secured third and fourth runner up positions respectively.2010
Kalpana Raghavendar won the 2010 Star Singer contest. She won a villa worth INR 10,000,000. Mridula Varier became the first runner-up. She won gold worth INR 1,500,000. Immanuel Henry became the second runner-up. He won gold worth INR 750,000. Antony John became the third runner-up. He won INR 500,000. Akhil Krishnan became the fourth runner-up. He won INR 200,000. Antony also won a special prize of INR 500,000 from film actor MohanlalMohanlal
Mohanlal Vishwanathan Nair , known mononymously as Mohanlal , is a National Award-winning Indian actor, producer, singer and writer who is well known for his versatile and natural acting in Indian cinema & hence widely known as the Universal Star...
But due to shooting and other problems, Mohanlal wasn't able to turn up leaving Ganagandharvan Padma Shri Dr K.J Yesudas to hand over the prize money.
Key People
| Season | Aired from | Aired till | Judges | Anchor(s) | Winners |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arun Raj Kavita Jayaram |
||||
| 2 | Najim Arshad | ||||
| 3 | Vivek Anand Sonia |
||||
| 4 | Joby John | ||||
| 5 | Kalpana Raghavendar | ||||
| 6 | Season in Progress |
SMS
Asianet has not made clear how the SMSSMS
SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
votes are attributed before and after on each contestants reaching the 'danger zone' leading to their elimination. It is alleged that the SMS votes received are not added to decide the ranking of the contestants. The number or the percentage of SMS votes received by each contestants are kept private from the viewers of the show. Since the channel has its reach over 60 countries including the Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, South East Asia, Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, USA, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and the lower half of the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
at various time zones, the SMS voting end-time was initially not announced. Asianet later clarified after the eighth stage that SMS voting deadlines are based on Indian Time.
According to Asianet sources, for the Grand Finale, weightage of SMS was just 5% of overall score with judges' score attributing the rest 95%.
Elimination round
After each stage of performance, the show has 'elimination' round. The candidates are eliminated from the next stage of performance through the 'elimination' round. Candidates are eliminated based on the scores given by the judges and the SMS votes each candidates gets.The number of SMS votes each candidate gets is not revealed to the audience. Initially the audience were not informed of the elimination date and venue in advance. However, the channel pursued its audience to vote even after the elimination process was over. This had affected the reputation of the channel and the programme was criticized for its malpractices. However after its eighth stage the project team behind the programme corrected this error as a face saving measure by making its elimination round public. The programme continued to be criticized through the online forum of the programme itself. Later, Asianet had to close the forum fearing negative opinions.Every elimination round begins with the presentation of a few candidates as fallen into danger zone. A candidate falls into danger zone if the channel declares that person has not got either sufficient scores or enough votes. The elimination round is always presented as an emotional event where often the judges and participants end up crying. Often the judges use the emotional environment to persuade the audience to vote.
Asianet's exclusivity rights on ISS contestants
The show appears to have lost some credibility when one of the contestants was eliminated without being present at the stage on the eighth round of eliminations. The reason behind this contestants deliberate absence remains unexplained to the audience and was told to be due to 'personal reasons' and 'not so serious matter' concerning him, the show & Asianet. They have confirmed that he was eliminated from show for violating one of the rules. There is a rumor that the contestant got booted off the show after he declined from signing the exclusivity rights contract with Asianet not to sing in movies, attend stage shows, or other television channel's programs for a period of 18 months.Balakrishnan Shenoy's criticisms
Renowned critic Balakrishnan Shenoy has, in several articles, severely criticized the show. "The show, and by extension its makers, have no respect for our time. Isn't it peculiar that they manage to fit in only four to five contestants in a whole hour long episode? So much of the show's runtime is wasted on the judge's ridiculous comments. They nitpick about the littlest things, discouraging the participants from making the songs their own. They'd rather have the participants reproduce the original songs without any form of interpretation," he writes. He once described the judges as "fat vultures who eat everything up, from the participant's enthusiasm, to our time, to the show's runtime." He later printed a retraction when the show's judges didn't take his article lightly. However, his retraction ended with the statement, "...and so, again, I apologize. They are not fat vultures. Well, not vultures for sure."He also repeatedly refers to the show's attempts to move the audience emotionally as "pornographic". "The show," he writes, "tries so hard to squeeze emotions out of you. They play footage in slow motion with sad music in the background, in an attempt to move us. The only moving it did for me was pushing me off the couch and into the kitchen. There are those 'special' episodes which, again, want to tug at our heartstrings. They show off people with disabilities and try to elicit our sympathy in the most obvious, and unintentionally insensitive ways. I suppose we do feel sympathy that they're on the show."
Shenoy is especially critical of the show's host Ranjini Haridas. "Ranjini is painful to watch and hear. Apart from how her fake laughs and smiles are an assault on the senses. I find the way she tries to comfort the participants after they receive their scores both amusing and extremely stupid. "66... ah, it's an... okay score. You can do better. Chalta hai." Your stupid auntie can say that to you after you mess up an exam paper. An obnoxious thirty year old woman with a fake laugh and an even faker accent cannot. And especially not on national television."
Fans of the show have repeatedly written off Shenoy's articles against the show as the ravings of a 'hater', one response letter saying that he "find(s) faults with everything for no reason". Shenoy responded to this with a single sentence: "Point that statement at the judges of the show, please."