QAZI N RUPS FROM SINGAPORE!

BETWEEN Qazi Touqeer and Ruprekha Bannerjee, youcouldn't get a more different reaction to instant fame.

The duo is the latest in a long line of reality TV contest winners from India.

Kashmir-born Qazi, 19, and Ruprekha, 21, from Kolkata are winners of Sony Entertainment Television's (SET) talent show, Fame Gurukul (Fame Academy), in October.

The pair were the last two standing in a competition that saw 14 contestants slug it out with song and dance.

The New Paper met them when they were in Singapore last week to present an award at the Asian Television Awards.

Qazi took to his instant fame like a cat to catnip.

'I have always wanted to be famous,' he said.

Qazi said he wanted to be a Bollywood star like his idols Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.

'I saw Fame Gurukul and I told my mum: 'I am going to Mumbai and I am going to win this competition.'

'I thought this would be a good platform for me to get into Bollywood,' said the very confident frizzy-haired lad from Srinagar.

In contrast, Ruprekha was still a little shy about how to react to people recognising her.

'The housekeeper at my hotel said: 'Aren't you the girl from Fame Gurukul?'

'I was surprised that even people in Singapore knew us. All I said was thank you,' said the West Bengal native.

Like Qazi, she said that winning Fame Gurukul was a dream come true.

'I've always wanted to be a playback singer. When I was younger, I would write on my pencil box: 'Ruprekha (playback singer)','said the younger of two children.

For Qazi and Ruprekha, the trip to Singapore was their first trip abroad.

Fame Gurukul is based on a Spanish reality TV show called Operacion Triunfo where 14 contestants live in a house together for 14 weeks.

During the show, India's top singers and musicians tutored the contestants.

Each week, one contestant was booted out through viewers' SMS votes.

The two final winners or the Fame Jodi (Fame Couple) got a one-year artiste contract worth 10 million rupees ($364,040) with SET and a recording contract with Sony BMG.

The show was so popular that about half a million SMS votes were polled for the finals and reportedly caused a near meltdown of India's handphone services.

Qazi and Ruprekha, who were the favourites throughout the competition, described the experience as being in another world.

Ruprekha said: 'We were totally cut off from the outside world. It was just a completely different environment.

'We had to focus on the business of singing and performing. Nothing else mattered.'

Qazi added: 'It had to be the hardest thing I ever did. We were not allowed to read newspapers, talk to our parents. We couldn't even talk to the camera crew.'

He admitted that his school-teacher mother and his father, a legal adviser with the United Nations in Srinagar, were not happy about him leaving school for fame.

'But I told them I was going be a star and here I am,' he said.

However, not everybody is embracing the newly-minted stars.

Shubha Mudgal, one of India's leading Indian classical singers, was a harsh critic of the show.

In an interview with The Hindu, she said: 'You earn gyan (knowledge), not fame, in a gurukul (music academy).

'Only with gyan comes fame. A gurukul is not a mall where you can buy fame.'

When the topic was brought up, Qazi and Ruprekha were miffed at the criticism.

'This is the shortest way of getting a foot into the industry.

'But at the end of the day, my talent will speak for itself,' said Qazi.

Ruprekha added: ' I worked hard for this. I deserve it and they (critics) are wrong if they say we didn't work for it.'

They will work hard to prove themselves, for the next few months at least. The two will be kept busy, jetting across the Indian sub-continent and performing at live shows back-to-back.

Qazi claimed that he is already getting offers from Bollywood.

He said with a swagger: 'The goal for me now is to be a film star and to sing all the songs on the film soundtracks.'