If we had any doubts about ours being a nation of singers, hear this - Zee TV's new music show "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs", devoted to promoting young singing talent, got 100,000 entries from four major cities.
"We conducted auditions judged by our three-member panel of Abhijeet, Alka Yagnik and Bappi Lahiri in four cities -- Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Lucknow. Believe me, we came across astonishing singing talent.
"Of the 100,000 entries, 98 percent of the young singers from the age group of eight to 14 were trained singers who have learnt classical singing from a guru or a skilled tutor," Gajendra Singh, producer-director of the show, told IANS.
"Ask any of these youngsters to sing a dadra or a thumri and they break into a snatch spontaneously."
The three judges chose 10 finalists.
"We'll choose our 'Little Champ' in 16 weeks. The little singers are phenomenal," said Bappi Lahiri, one of the judges. Then how do we explain the acute paucity of genuine singing talent in the film industry?
And do young singing wonders grow up to be disappointments?
Hemant Kumar Mukherjee's daughter Ranu, Bappi Lahiri's daughter Reema, composer Laxmikant's daughter Rajeshwari, Anuradha Paudwal's daughter Kavita are some young singing sensations who haven't made much headway.
"That's because they exhaust themselves too fast by overdoing it. Whoever will be our Young Champ, will be given the room to bloom effortlessly," promised Singh, whose triumphant "Ek Main Aur Ek Tu" singing-jodi Aishwarya-Ujjaini has just made an appearance in Madhur Bhandarkar's "Corporate".
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