SA RE GA MA PA “Sangeet ka pratham vishwayudh” which is being aired on ZEE TV every Fri-Sat at 10p.m. has come to its final days where the world will decide who will be the next Saregamapa King. It has been a tough yet zig-zag routine. But the common and most important factor remained the same, to search for the best singer and at the same time give full n full entertainment to our public.

From the 120 contestants from all over the world, 48 were first short listed, then 24 were again sorted out from them. Then the real battle began, week after week contestants were voted out. Before the final battle watch the exclusive journey of the three tiger cubs on Friday 12th of October at 10p.m. only on ZEE TV.

The 14 wonderful finalists who made it to the last battle were Abhijit, Apurva, Harpreet , Joy, Junaid, Maulvi, Musarrat, Nirupama, Poonam, Rimi, Sumedha, Raja Hassan, Amanat Ali and Aneek Dhar. Amongst them also the three to make it to the final battle are Raja Hassan, Amanat Ali and Aneek Dhar. All three are very close contenders and are fighting hard to win the coveted title. Now lets see a close profile of our three finalists.

Amanat Ali is of 19 yrs and has come all the way from Failslabad, Pakistan but was selected from the Dubai Audition. He belongs to the YALGAR gharana and is one of the strongest and loved contestants in the show. He is an ardent fan of Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan Sahib and once got the opportunity to perform in front of him where the later was so impressed he gave him a Rs.500 as a prize which he still treasures. This has been one of the best memories with him. He is also fond of playing Cricket and snooker.

Aneek Dhar has come from Kolkata and is 18 yrs of age. He belongs to the ROCK gharana headed by Himesh Reshammiya. He has already won the Saregamapa Bangla contest. He is very fond of listening to music and also loves playing cricket. He had started taking music lessons at the very tender age of 4.

Raja Hassan is the most loved and popular contenders on the show. He is 26 yrs of age and comes from Bikaner, Rajasthan. He belongs to the HIT squad of Vishal & Shekhar. His journey from bikaner to saregamapa has been amazing. First he belonged to the Eklavya gharana then got selected for the Hit Squad but was eliminated. Again he got chance in the Bramhastra Round and made a come back and since then has become the hot favorites amongst the mentors and public at large.

As we all know, the show SA RE GA MA PA is the first of its kind of musical reality show. It has produced some great achievers in the field of playback music like Avdhoot Gupte (who have sung popular songs like ‘Jai Maharashtra Maza’, ‘Meri Madhubala’, ‘Aika Dajiba’ and ‘Mere Saath chal’), Shreya Ghoshal (given songs to movies like Jism, Main Hoon Na, Munnabhai MBBS, Julie etc.), Sanjeevani Bhelande (movies include Kareeb, kya dil ne kaha, road, rules, soch na tha etc.) and of course the “Murder” fame singer Kunal Ganjawala (who has sung for musafir, kyon ho gaya na etc.).

This series of SA RE GA MA PA has many new elements in it. Firstly, it has gone global with contestants from all over Asia, Africa, America and Europe. Hence the title “Sangeet ka Pratham Vishwa Yudh”. Secondly, the show has gone beyond participants to the four powerhouse mentors who will also be competing with each other. They are the very popular Himesh Reshammiya with the distinctive high pitched voice, the duo of Vishal & Shekhar who have recently rocked the music industry with their combination of Indian sound with techno music, Ismail Darbar who turned from a successful violinist to a super successful music director and Bappi Lahiri who is the only man who have sung both with Kishore Kumar and K K Menon. Thirdly and lastly the young dashing and melodious cub Aditya Udit Narayan, who has added a different and hip color to the show with his new and refreshing look and the cargos and jeans.

The four mentors each have a gharana and the participants under them are known from their respected gharana names. Vishal & Shekahar leads the HIT SQUAD, Himesh Reshammiya guides the ROCK gharana while Ismail Darbar commands the YALGAR gharana and lastly the JOSH gharana is headed by Bappi Lahiri.

The participants selected for HIT squad included Apurva (Mumbai), Imran Aslam (South Africa), Junaid Sheikh (Karachi, Pak), Meghna Verma (Pune), Saberi B(Kolkata), Raja Hassan (Bikaner), Sarika Singh (Indore) and Harpreet Deol (Ludhiana).

The ROCK band consisted of Amrita Chatterjee (Kolkata), Musarrat Abbas (Lahore, Pak), Nirupama Dey (Agartala), Shreshtha B (Kolkata), Yodendra Pathak (London), Joy Chakraborty (Lumding), Tushar Sinha (Silchar) and Aneek Dhar (Kolkata).

YALGAR gharana embraced Amanat Ali (Dubai), DeshGaurav (Pratapgarh), Poonam Jatau (Lucknow), Rimi Dhar (Jabalpur), Wasi Effendi (Karachi, Pak) and Jyoti Mishra (Azamgarh, UP).

The JOSH gharana had Abhijit Kosambi (Mumbai), Maulvi Dave (Houston, USA), Reecha Tripathy (Canada), Sikander Ali (Karachi, Pak), Sunil Kumar (Sundernagar), Sumedha Karmahe (Rajnandgaon) and Koel Chatterjee (Dhanbad, Jharkhand).

The Mentors are each experienced and master in their own technical ways. In the guidance and support of such great people the participants are here to polish and refine their skills and win the hearts of the people around the globe. Their job is to design the art but the building and construction solely depends on the participants. Ultimately its the hard work that pays off.

Bappi Lahiri or Bappida as he is fondly called and is always recognized for his adorned jewelery which includes pendants and rings of astrological and religious values. He is the son of the veteran classical singer Bansari and Aparesh Lahiri. He was only three when he started to play the tabla. He came to Bollywood at a very tender age of 19 and bagged his first opportunity in a Bengali film named ‘Daadu’ in the year 1972 and in the same year also did a hindi movie called ‘Nanha Shikari’. But came to be known after the hindi film ‘Zakhmee’ for which he not only composed music but also gave his voice as a playback singer. He also sung ‘Nothing is Impossible’ with Mohamed Rafi and Kishore Kumarfor the same film. Then his songs for the film ‘Chalte Chalte’ became a rage.

There is something about Bappida’s music, they have an element of spark in them and that gives him the edge. He is the pioneer of the disco music in Indian tadka to our film industry. Last year he for the very first time lend his voice to another composer Vishal & Shekahr for the movie Taxi Number 9211 and the song was ‘Boombai Nagariya’ which became an instant hit. After that once again he lent his voice and this time to the very famous A.R.Rahman for the movie ‘Guru’. He has composed music for more than 380 films which is just unbelievable and is the only man to have sung with both K K Memon and Kishore Kumar. Some of his remarkable works are in Aap ki khatir (1977), Tere pyar mein (1978), Dil se mile dil (1978), Surakshaa (1979), Namak Halaal (1982), Disco Dancer (1983), Prem Yog (1994), Big Boss (1995), Bombay Girls (2001), Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005) and the list continues.

Himesh Reshammiya primarily a music director but became famous later for his unusual nasal vocals. He started his career earlier with a production house which aired TV soaps on Doordarshan and Zee TV. He was first noticed for his work in film ‘Pyar kiya to darna kya’in 1998 though his first film as a music director was ‘Bandhan’. Then he came up with his albums “Tere Naam”, “Ashiq Banaya aapne” which sold like hot cakes and beat all the numbers in the charts. His music breathes fresh air and connects with the youth naturally. His versatile nature of work has given him the attention that he deserves. Apart from fusion and heavy metal styles he also successfully gives classical and semi-classical music too. Sameer has been his lyricist for most of his films.

He is considered one of the best upcoming music composers of today. He is the first Indian to perform at Webley Arena, London. He was also awarded the Best Male Playback Singer Filmfare Award for the year 2005 setting a record for becoming the first ever music composer to receive that award. In a single year of 2006 he had more than 36 hit tracks. Some of his memorable works are in Aashiq Banaya Aapne (2005), Banaras- A mystic love story (2006), 36 China Town (2006), Phir Hera Pheri (2006), Chup Chup Ke (2006), Ahista Ahista (2006) and Dil Diya Hai (2006). Also some of his hot favorite songs are Chura liya hai tumne, Taaza Taaza, Ankhen Bandh Karke, O Soniya, Mohabbat Hai Mirchi, Nikkama Kiya Is Dil Ne and Gela Gela.

Ismail Darbar has been a violinist for 14 long years and was working with almost all music directors. Here he observed the work of his masters and his ambition became to be a independent music director. As a boy from surat he was very attracted to music and so came to Mumbai at a age of 14 and strated learning violin from Pt. Ram Prasad Sharma and Shri Ganesh. His work in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” surprised everyone and this was his first brush with fame. The quality of his work is so awesome and extraordinarily original that it seems unbelievable. He is a very humble man and with these qualities he is giving his contenders a run for their money.

Some of his remarkable work includes Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya (2000), Devdas (2002), Shakti –The Power (2002), Baaz (2003), Kisna (2005), Mehbooba (2006) and Oldd iss Goldd (2007).

Vishal and Shekhar who compromises the HIT squad in this challenge, rose to popularity after their hit song ‘Saaki’ and ‘Door Se Paas’. However they got noticed only after ‘Jhankar Beats’ and also received the Filmfare RDBurman Award for New Music Talent for the same movie. Now they are ruling the music charts with their new film ‘Om Shanti Om’. Vishal is also a member of the electronic Band Pentagram which he started in 1993.

Their musical scores are a good combination of Techno music with Indian sounds. Some of their fine works include Jhankar Beats (2003), Dus(2005), Salam Namaste (2005), Ek Ajnabee (2005), Bluffmaster (2005), Taxi Number 9211 (2006), Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007) and Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007).

The final war has started and is fierce than ever seen on the show, all are equally good, but before the judgment, lets give these contenders our hearty warm wishes and of course votes. So keep voting for your favorite until they win. And yes, don’