From My Diary - Talent Hunt

This is a message for the organisers of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa shows conducted for adults and L' ll champs, on the zee marathi channel. In the recent on going show for the l'll champs we saw some good singers getting edged out because of the poor SMS s in their kitty. This is really absurd and criminal injustice. I hope you are not trying to locate a popular singer but a singer who has a great voice and can probably fill up the vacuum when legends like Lata Didi, Asha Didi, Suresh Wadkar etc retire from their active singing career. Zee Marathi talent hunt shows should be different then others for sure. So my humble request is not to fall in to traps of commercialism. I have following suggestions to make : Initial screening and knock out rounds should be decided by the panel of judges only. The process of considering the SMS votes should start when the singers left are 36. The next reduction from 36 to 24 should be decided by judges and SMS in 6 steps. In each step the weightage of SMS should increase by 5 % , starting from 0 % at 36. The shortlisting of 24 best singers should be done by the judges and the SMS based voting in the ratio of 70 : 30 percent The next reduction from 24 to 12 should be done again in 6 steps, but only by judges. The next short listing of 12 singers should be done only by judges on the panel. These are 12 Ratnas. This group of 12 ratnas should have 6 male singers and 6 female singers. We surely need a male and a female singer every year for next decade or so to fill up the vacuum. At this stage you should call Legends in the field of SINGING : Lata, Asha , Hridyanath, Suresh Wadkar, Sonu Nigam, Shakar Mahadevan, Pandit Jasraj, Kisori Amonkar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Abhijeet, Alka Yagnik, Khayam, Kalyanji etc etc. From this stage on every round should have a fixed format first a Hindi Song of singer's choice and then a Marathi song. Marathi Song in a should have only bhav geet, lavni, abhang, natya sangeet, rock or pop, bhajan etc etc in each round. This will ensure that all the singers are prepared for the National Stage which is primarily Hindi - Bollywood and also give an level playing ground because every one will be judged on their exposure and merit in each of the format. When all the forms of Marathi Singing are over, the numbers scored by each singer in all the rounds put together should be arrived at in two categories - marks given by teh regular panel of judges and the marks given by the legends. The weightage should be now 30 % for the regular judges and 70 % for the legends. Based on this pattern top 3 male and top 3 female singers should be short listed. Then there should 3 MEGA Final Rounds - To consider 2 best performances out of 3 for the final selection of a MAHA GAYAK and a MAHA GAYIKA. In these 3 mega final rounds only the marks given by the external judges should be counted. Does it sound complicated ?? If yes, there would be many like me to fix a great format, which would be path breaking and unique. Let others follow us. I think if you follow some pattern like this there would not be any regional bias, commercialism over taking merit etc etc. And we will get a REAL MAHA NAYAK and a MAHA NAYIKA. Thank you, Yours truly, A G Ganu An Avid Marathi Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Fan from Hyderabad Mobile - 9849029904