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Channel [v]’s production team has attempted to make the show as engrossing as possible with an assortment of characters and mannerisms on display
CHannel [v]'s Samsung Super Singer debuts today at 9.00 pm, and the excitement at STAR India, which broadcasts the channel, is palpable. A mega-launch is on the cards, the word-of-mouth is intense, and above all, a high level of confidence characterises CHannel [v] head Amar Deb.
"The reason for this confidence is on account of us having a great product," says Deb at the sidelines of a special screening of the first episode of Super Singer in Mumbai.
This episode dwells on the auditions in Delhi, which was the first stopover for the travelling [v] team in September, and residents in and around the Capital responded wholeheartedly with close to 6,000 people turning up for the event. Eventually, however, about half the junta, that is about 3,000-odd people got a chance to croon in front of star juror Adnan Sami, and the rage of candidates who were shown the door has been captured vividly by the roving camera.
Scenes of wannabes crying, and some of them flinging chappals are all there for public consumption. Deb says that the attempt while shooting and editing the episodes was to showcase the good as well as the bad. "It's all there on the show," he says.
The lucky lot who displayed their vocal prowess in front of Sami came from all walks of life, in all shapes and sizes. A supremely talented clinical psychologist, an equally gifted medical student, a blind man named Saif from the Bureau of Indian Standards, a wheelchair bound Sardar, who was touched when Sami stepped out of the auditorium to hear him sing in the foyer, or a 15-year-old girl from Hardiwar, who made an emotional video appeal to Sami to allow her to participate in the contest - the taut, one-hour episode is packed with people and moments.
"The brief was clear," says Deb, "to look out for human stories."
All this footage has been slickly packaged in an opening montage that depicts a sea of mikes with contestants emerging out of it.
Industry sources indicate that the total investment on Super Singer, which is the most expensive of [v]'s talent hunts, is in the region of Rs 10-15-crore. CHannel [v] has plans to introduce a couple of new innovations during the 18 episode-series to build interactivity and increase stickiness.
The 10-city audition round will stretch over five episodes of one-hour each. This will be followed by the zonal round, and finally the national round, which will run for a duration of 30 minutes.
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