India gets its first female 'Indian Idol'

Mumbai, March 1(IANS) After four years of its running, popular music reality show 'Indian Idol' finally got its first female winner in the form of Sourabhee Debbarma, who won the grand finale of the fourth season of the TV programme here Sunday night.

Sourabhee, who hails from the India's north east, belted out popular numbers confidently and piped other finalists - Bengali girl Torsha Sarkar and army man Kapil Thapa. She walked away with a Rs.10 million contract with Sony TV and a car.

The result was based on public voting.

The special attractions of the event were Bollywood stars John Abraham, Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh, who had come to promote their forthcoming film 'New York'.

Others from the Indian film and music industry, including judges Javed Akhtar, Anu Malik, Kailash Kher and Sonali Bendre, too were present to cheer the finalists.

The 22-year-old winner is petite, charismatic and adds glamour to her stage performances with her perfect moves - a plus point she has had since the beginning of the show. However, the girl has had no professional training in music.

She recently met veteran Assamese composer Bhupen Hazarika who told her 'my blessings are with you'.