Ashish Golwalkar on 12-hour marathon season finale of India Idol Season 12

‘India Idol Season 12’ was given a grand send-off with 12 hours of non-stop entertainment comprising over 40 acts and a befitting celebration of music with over 200 songs. The season culminated the Greatest Finale Ever episode, where the top 6 finalists – Pawandeep Rajan, Arunita Kanjilal, Mohd Danish, Sayli Kamble, Nihal Tauro and Shanmukha Priya – gave a commendable performance and raced towards winning the coveted trophy of ‘Indian Idol Season 12’. Pawandeep Rajan has been declared winner of ‘Indian Idol Season 12’. 

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While a lot of reality and talent hunt shows come up with grand ideas for season finales, a season finale running into 12 hours has never been seen before on India television. Speaking on the thought behind the biggest finale ever for ‘Indian Idol’, Ashish Golwalkar, Content Head, Digital Business and SET, Sony Pictures Networks India, explained that it was all about breaking the clutter and creating a disruption. He added, “It was a huge task in front of us. The teams have been working day in and day out and we were looking forward to wrapping up this season amidst great splendor and fanfare. One episode is for one and a half hours, and if we divide it, you will understand that it is equal to packaging 5-6 episodes for one finale. You have one day and you need to fill it up with 12 hours of content – there’s edit, music, musicians, practice sessions, costumes and everything else. It is taxing, but also very exciting.” 

The talent hunt show has completed 12 years now. Speaking about the USP of the show makes ‘Indian Idol’ so popular, Golwalkar acknowledged that ‘Indian Idol’ has been an exceptionally popular show and a hugely successful format for Sony. Calling it one of the most beloved singing reality shows in the country, Golwalkar said, “It has introduced us to several musical talents from across the country over the years and undoubtedly changed the future of many contestants and made them stars overnight. And one of the biggest reasons for its success is its approach. While the earlier music reality shows were more focused on following traditional norms of singing, ‘Indian Idol’ accepted and adopted the changing times and made it essential for a singer to not only sing well, but also perform well as an artist.” 

Selecting the right talent from different parts of India has played a major role in the success of ‘Indian Idol’. When asked how ‘Indian Idol’ always gets the best talent, Golwalkar replied, “Our focus has always been singing and incredible vocal performance. Even though the show this year conducted digital auditions, we saw massive participation. A lot of young contestants came forward and I must say that all of them have immense potential. ‘Indian Idol’ cultivates and promotes outstanding untapped talent amongst the youth of India by nurturing them and providing a national platform to showcase their talent.” 

The surge in digital due to the pandemic has changed the way auditions are now done. On whether digital auditions would be done for other shows on Sony, Golwalkar said, “During the pandemic the world has learnt how to adapt to difficult and different situations. In fact, ‘Indian Idol’ was our first show where we adopted digital auditions. The response was great. However, unfortunately we could not digitalise the entire show and had to package it physically. I think we identify this as a Hybrid model that was created post which we did ‘Super Dancer 4/ and recently ‘India’s Best Dancer’ and ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’s auditions too.” 

He further said that there were a lot of learnings from ‘India Idol’, which gave the channel the opportunity to improvise it for other shows. “Subsequently, it’s a hybrid model, where there will be digital auditions and then people will have to bundle episodes physically, which will give the opportunity to witness the talent. We have been both elated and lucky that not only ‘Indian Idol’, but on the other shows as well, we have identified some incredible talent. You are already witnessing this on ‘Super Dancer 4’ and I am sure are enjoying it as well,” he added. 

Given the challenging scenario amidst the pandemic, Sony Entertainment Television still managed to pull off an entertaining season of Indian Idol. Golwalkar credited Sony’s team with pulling off another successful edition of Indian Idol. “While the team has been working hard to churn out episodes amid various protocols, they assured that the spirit is intact,” he added. 

Along with the incredible talent, Sony has also consciously been building a connection with its audiences for its various shows. Elaborating on how the channel has been doing this, Golwalkar said, “At Sony Entertainment Television, we have reserved the weekends for the talent. If you see, most of our shows talk about the common man, their talent and celebrate that – be it ‘Indian Idol’, ‘Super Dancer’, ‘India’s Best Dancer’, ‘Superstar Singer’, our kids singing show. Very soon we will be launching ‘Shark Tank’ too, as you must already know. It has been announced where we will be giving an opportunity to budding entrepreneurs, again that is talent, too, an art where one thinks of a business idea, and then there’s ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ as well. KBC is not about talent, but more about knowledge, which the common man can again connect and seek knowledge. So, all the shows that we have developed celebrate the common man through their talent or their knowledge and I think that has been our main USP and something that it is working for us and we want to continue to be invested in it.”