Indian Idol

Season 1

The winner of the first season of Indian Idol was Abhijeet Sawant from Mumbai.^[1] The season was aired from October 2004 to March 2005 on Sony TV. Amit Sana from Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, was declared the first runner-up, while Rahul Vaidya from Nagpur and Prajakta Shukre from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, placed third and fourth respectively.^[1]

The judges for the first season were Anu Malik, Sonu Nigam, and Farah Khan. They retained the same spot for the second season. The first season was hosted by Aman Verma and Mini Mathur.^[1]

The top 11 in order of their eliminations were:

• Priyanka Venkateshwara (dropped out to study for exams)
• Vishal Kothari
• Amit Tandon
• Rahul Saxena
• Harish Moyal
• Mukesh Pancholi
• Aditi Paul
• Ravinder Ravi
• Prajakta Shukre
• Rahul Vaidya
• Amit Sana - 1st runner up
• Abhijeet Sawant - Winner

Despite not wining the Idol series, Season 1 contestant Amit Tandon went on to have a successful acting career

The winner, Abhijeet Sawant, went on to release his first album, Aapka...Abhijeet Sawant. He placed third in Asian Idol, representing India. He also released a successful second album, Junoon, and contributed to the film Aashiq Banaya Aapne. He also did some commercials for Spraymint. He started acting with his debut film Lottery, which was released in March 2009 but did not do well at the box office.^[1]

Rahul Saxena, who failed to make it to the top 6, was offered a song by Indian Idol judge and director, Farah Khan, in her own film Om Shanti Om. Amit Tandon landed a new role with Ekta Kapoor and Balaji Telefilms. Amit Sana, Rahul Vaidya, and Prajakta Shukre went on to release solo albums.

Rahul Vaidya, the second runner-up, hosted Aaja Mahi Ve on the STAR Plus channel. He also hosted the popular dance show Jhoom India. He contributed to the soundtrack of the film Shaadi No. 1 and was also the part of the winning team, "Shankar's Rockstars", in the musical game show Music Ka Maha Muqqabla. He later became the winner of the reality singing show Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar on the same channel, whereas Abhijeet Sawant was the first runner-up in the same show.^[1] Aditi Paul one of only two girls in the top 10 of the First Indian idol went on to sing many songs for Sanjay Bhansali's Magnum Opus " Ram Leela" including the sensuous romantic number " Ang lagade re". She has also lent her voice to the Baahubali song "veeron ke veer". She has also worked with many top composers in the south like A R Rahman(Lingaa) , Ilayaraja (Vaaraayo Vennilaave) andmany other. She has also released her Semi classical based album.

Season 2

Sandeep Acharya, season two winner hails from Bikaner

The second season aired on Sony TV from 21 November 2005 to 22 April 2006. The final 12 contestants, in order of their elimination, were:

• Sagar Sawarkar
• Yashashree Bhave
• Neha Kakkar
• Monali Thakur
• Panna Gill
• Ravi Tripathi
• Meenal Jain
• Antara Mitra
• Amey Date
• Anuj Sharma
• N. C. Karunya
• Sandeep Acharya - Winner

The winner, Sandeep Acharya, released his first solo album, Mere Saath Saara Jahaan, which failed to get much attention. Acharya later died from jaundice in December 2013. The first runner-up, N. C. Karunya from Hyderabad, released a solo album titled Aapka Karunya. His song "Aane Chaar Aane" appeared in the film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Anuj Sharma, who finished third, released a solo album titled "Khwaab" in 2010.

Neha Kakkar also participated in the second season of Indian Idol, and has had a string of hits in the 2016 and 2017 timeframe. She is one of the most successful bollywood singers in 2018^[4]

Menal Jain has since released her solo album Mehram and performed a number of stage shows with Sonu Nigam. She also received an offer from Anu Malik.

In addition, Antara Mitra, a regular favourite of Anu Malik, received many playback offers and released a remixed version of "Yeh ishq hai" from Jab We Met, composed by Pritam. Mitra was also a contestant of the music show Junoon and also is recording her solo album. One of her songs was featured in the film Raajneeti. Mitra has gained fame in recent years as one of the singers of the song "Gerua" from the movie Dilwale.

Season 2 contestant Monali Thakur has successfully established herself as singer in Bollywood and is recipient of a National Film Award and a Filmfare Award.^[5]

Monali Thakur sang the song "Zara Zara Touch Me" in the film Race as well as the song "Sexy Lady" (Khaab Dekhe Jhoote Moote). Music director Pritam offered her another chance in the film Golmaal Returns with a song titled "Meow", picturised on Kareena Kapoor. She also has sung in Bengali. She has also sung the song "Sawaar Loon" from the film Lootera,"cham cham" from the film Baaghi. Thakur also appeared as a judge on the Indian version of the TV show Rising Star.^[5]

Amey Date was a contestant in the musical game show Music Ka Maha Muqqabla and also participated in the reality singing show Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar. Date also participated in Rising Star and finished fifth.

Season 3

The show's third season aired on Sony TV from 4 May 2007 to 23 September 2007. The winner was Prashant Tamang, who hails from Kolkata in West Bengal and of Nepali origin. The runner-up, Amit Paul, was from Shillong, Meghalaya.

The judges for this season were Anu Malik, Javed Akhtar, Alisha Chinai, and Udit Narayan. The third season was hosted by Hussain Kuwajerwala and Mini Mathur.

Prashant Tamang has since cut a solo album, Dhanyabad, as per contract with Sony. He also conducted a world tour of shows. Suhit Gosain, who finished in the top 14 contestants, appeared in a KitKat chocolate advertisement. Four finalists, Meiyang Chang, Suhit Gosain, Parleen, and Abhishek, entered into a contract with Sony BMG and released an album named Tu To Na Aayi as a boy band named F4. The band's song Udd Chale became very successful. F4 was also declared "The Next Big Thing" on channel V. Emon Chatterjee from Kolkata and Deepali Kishore released I Love You, composed by Anu Malik, for the film Don Muthu Swami. Emon also hosted a popular show, Royal Bengal Superstar',' on Star Jalsa. Meiyang Chang, who placed fifth in this season, hosted the IPL 2009 and also received an offer to act in Badmaash Company, directed by Parmeet Sethi. He hosted the fourth season of Indian Idol with Hussain Kuwajerwala. He also won the dance reality show Jhalak Dikhla Jaa.

6th runner-up Deepali Kishore hosted a musical reality show on Doordarshan. Suhit Gosain hosted a musical reality show on Real Channel by Miditech Pvt. Ltd. & Datari Turner Productions. He also appeared in television commercials including NIIT and Videocon D2H.

Amit Paul sang the song "Pyaar Ki Dastaan" in the film Luck by Chance (starring Farhan Akhtar and Konkona Sen Sharma). He, alongside the third runner-up Ankita Mishra, represented India in the Indian Carnival in Kuwait in 2007.

Season 4

The fourth season of Indian Idol was aired on Sony TV from 19 September 2008 to 1 March 2009. For the first time in Indian Idol history, there were two women among the top three finalists. Sourabhee Debbarma who hails from Agartala, Tripura won the competition and became the first female contestant to do so. By doing so, she also won a contract of Rs. 1 crore with Sony Entertainment Television and a TATA Winger. She released an album, Meherbaan, as per a contract with Sony. She also performed a few stage shows around the country and overseas with Sony TV.Kapil Thapa was runner-up while Torsha Sarkar finished third.

The fourth season saw Anu Malik and Javed Akhtar on the hot seats as they took the judges' chair once again for the show. New to this season were singer Kailash Kher and Indian actress Sonali Bendre. The fourth season was hosted by Hussain Kuwajerwala and Meiyang Chang.

One of the contestants, Bhavya Pandit, received an offer to sing the song "Aaja Lehraate" for the film What's Your Raashee, alongside singer Gautam Mrinaal. She also went on to sing "Rani Main Tu Raja" from the movie Son Of Sardaar. The song became a hit and Pandit received appreciation from the audience.

Top Contestants of Season 4

• Sourabhee Debbarama - Winner^[6]
• Kapil Thapa - 1st Runner Up
• Torsha Sarkar - 2nd Runner Up

Season 5

The winner of Indian Idol 5 was Sreeramchandra Mynampati from Hyderabad, 1st south Indian to win the title. The fifth season was judged on Anu Malik, along with two new judges:Salim Merchant and Sunidhi Chauhan. The contestants at the Grand Finale were Sreeramchandra, Bhoomi, and Rakesh. The finale was held on 15 August 2010 (which also happens to be the Indian Independence Day). For the first time in Indian Idol, the finale was held between three contestants.

The judges first selected the top 112 contestants from across the country. After several rounds, the judges selected the top 16 contestants. After public voting, a total of 6 were directly given entry to the top 12 (Indian Idol Gala) while out of the remaining 10, only seven were chosen by judges on the basis of their live performances. The selected top 13 competed for the title of Indian Idol 5. The judges were appreciative of the quality of the contestants for this season as compared to previous tournaments.^[7]

On the episode aired on 13 May 2010, the top 13 finalists selected by the judges for the Gala Rounds were:

• Bhoomi Trivedi,
• Vishwas Rai,
• Swaroop Khan,
• Sashi Suman,
• Manisha Karmakar,
• Tia Kar,
• Shivam Pathak,
• Naushad Ali Kawa,
• Sreerama Chandra Mynampati,
• Arpita Khan, Swagata,
• Gautam Mrinaal
• Meghna Kumar,
• Rakesh Maini, and
• Yashraj Kapil.^[8]

Vishwas Rai Swagata were eliminated in Gala Round 1, Meghna Kumar in Gala Round 2, Manisha Karmarkar the next week, Yashraj Kapil next and Arpita Khan the week after that. The week after that, the public voted out one Sashi. The next elimination was Naushad Ali Kawa. Tia Kar was subsequently eliminated. Rakesh was evicted the week after, but he was retained by the judges using their "VETO Power". Shivam Pathak had to leave next. The last to be eliminated was Swaroop Khan. Thus, the top three were Bhoomi Trivedi, Rakesh and Sreerama Chandra Mynampati.

Sreeram Chandra had already made his debut in the Telugu movie industry. He also sang a song with Shreya Ghoshal for Salim Suleman Merchant during the course of the season. Swaroop Khan also got the chance to sing a song as the playback singer during the course of Indian Idol 5 before his elimination. Bappi Lahiri gave him this opportunity. Swaroop Khan has also had the chance to sing in PK's 'Tharki Chokro' song.

Season 6

The sixth season aired on Sony TV from 1 June 2012 to 1 September 2012. The winner of the sixth season was Vipul Mehta. The judges liked the performances of all three contestants, but Vipul won the title as the decision was calculated by tabulating votes from the public as well as judge scoring. Vipul received the highest number of votes.^[9][10][11]

Mini Mathur and Hussain Kuwajerwala were again back to host Season 6. The judges for this season were Anu Malik, Sunidhi Chauhan, and Salim Merchant. Asha Bhosle joined the judging panel after the audition rounds.^[12]

On 23 June 2012, the judges selected the top 16 contestants to perform in the Gala Rounds. These contestants were:

• Amit Kumar,
• Amitabh Narayan,
• Amrita Panda,
• Charit Dixit,
• Deeksha Piyush,
• Deepak Maher,
• DevenderPal Singh,
• Kaushik Deshpande,
• Kritika Tanwar,
• Poorvi Koutish,
• Ravi Kumar Mishra,
• Ritika Raj,
• Saumya Mishra,
• Simran Kaur,
• Sohini Mishra, and
• Vipul Mehta.

The top 3 contestants were Amit Kumar, Devendra Pal Singh and Vipul Mehta.

Vipul Mehta was declared as the winner of Indian Idol 6.

Season 7

Season 8

Season 9

Season 9 winner LV Revanth was already an established singer in South India before winning Idol series

The show made a comeback on Indian Television after a gap of four years in 2016. Sonu Nigam was one of the judges this season. He made a comeback to the show after a decade.^[13] Other judges of the show are Anu Malik and Farah Khan. LV Revanth from Visakhapatnam is the winner of this season. LV Revanth is already a noted playback singer in the Telugu film industry who happened to sing a song in Baahubali - India's biggest motion picture till date. Khuda Baksh from Punjab is the 1st Runner up and PVNS Rohit from Hyderabad is the 2nd Runner up. Sachin Tendulkar was the guest on grand finale held on 1 April 2017.^[14]

The Final 14 Contestants were :-

• LV Revanth - Winner
• Khuda Baksh - 1st Runner Up
• PVNS Rohit - 2nd Runner Up
• Maalavika Sundar
• Mohit Chopra
• Manya Narang
• Hardeep Singh
• R P Shravan
• Tajinder Singh
• Jeli Kayi
• Bharti Gupta
• Mansi Bhardwaj
• Stuti Tiwari
• Saumya Mishra

Season 10

The 10th season of Indian Idol aired on Sony TV on 7 July 2018 after a gap of two years.

The Judges for this season are:

• Anu Malik
• Vishal Dadlani
• Neha Kakkar

Manish Paul is the host of the show this season.

The Top 14 Contestants:

• Neelanjana Ray
• Ankush Bharadwaj
• Renu Nagar
• Soumya Chakrabortty
• Salman Ali
• Nitin Kumar
• Kunal Pandit
• Vibhor Parashar
• Avanti Patel (Eliminated 5th)
• Saurabh Valmiki [Eliminated 4th]
• Biswajit Mohapatra [Eliminated 4th]
• Krishnakali Saha [Eliminated 3rd]
• Indira Das [Eliminated 2nd]
• Sonia Gajmer [Eliminated 1st]