Roop Kumar Rathod and Sonali Rathod top the Ustaads

9X's Mission Ustaad, a thirteen week musical journey for a charitable cause, witnesses its finale today, the 23rd of February 2008. As the competition of the four singing Ustaads of the nation comes to an end, Roop Kumar Rathod and Sonali Rathod top the Charts and take over the winning Trophy. The Telly Buzz team talks to the winning jodi, on their experience of being in a one of a kind show like Mission Ustaad..

"The journey for me in the show has been overwhelming. It's been a long journey for me. We had the younger lot in competition with us. So we had to put in a lot of hard work to cope up with them, and I am glad that our work was appreciated by the jury and the audience," says the musical maestro, Roop Kumar Rathod. Further on Mission Ustaad he adds in, "As an artist, I felt completely satisfied in being a part of a show that had such a good cause to it. I have been part of many entertainment shows, but it's a whole different feeling to be in a show that is actually meant not just to entertain, but to reach out to people to help the society."

Post Mission Ustaad, Roop Kumar Rathod has quite a few plans under his wings. "I am currently composing for an upcoming movie - Dhoom Dhadaka, which is a Shashi Ranjan film. It's a commercial movie, which seems to be the latest trend now. Hearing the music that I've given for this movie, it's going to be a complete shocker for the industry. No one's going to believe that I could make commercial song numbers as well. Besides that, Sonali and I are coming up with two albums, one is called- Sufiana and the second one is again a commercial album."

His better half in both, in the competition and in real life - Sonali Rathod was top notch excited for her victory in the show. "I am truly touched by winning the competition. The efforts put by us were well recognized. It was tougher to sing the original songs, but what was even harder was to sing the popular ones. I was known as a Ghazal singer uptil now, but Javed Akthar and Rehman discovered the new talents in me. I was glad that I could get this platform, and to be a part of a show that was so innovative and has such a good cause to it." On an ending note, Sonali says, "Even though the show has ended, I truly hope that the journey towards making the world a better place to live, never ends".

Reporter and Author: Hiral Anju Bhatt