India not in favour of a female idol?

From 30 contestants in the piano round, six boys and as many girls made it to the gala of Indian Idol-3. The galas began with 13 contestants a month ago and four girls have already been voted out in a row. This, despite the judges claiming that each female contestant was better than the other.

What made everyone sit up and take note of this trend of girls getting voted out, was when Charu Semwal, touted as a sure-shot name in the €˜top 3€™ was voted out of the show. Of the remaining girls, Deepali and Puja, both hot favourites of the judges, constantly find themselves in the €˜danger zone€™. Given the fact that four girls have been voted out in four weeks and Deepali and Puja often find themselves in the danger zone, are viewers showing a gender bias against girls?

going by the voting pattern so far, there seems to be rock solid support for Chang, Prashant Temang and Amit, as they have never found themselves in the bottom four. On the other hand, Puja has landed in the danger zone thrice, Deepali twice and others, at least once. "Historically, in India, there has always been a bias towards men. But then the boys we have on Indian Idol 3 are real good singers. I think it€™s the combination of talent and bias that has worked in their favour," feels Albert Almeida, Sony€™s business head.

While Udit Narayanan doesn€™t think that boys are benefiting because of gender bias against their female counterparts, Anu Malik hopes that people are voting on the basis of singing and performance and not discriminating against girls. "I really feel sad when I see girls in bottom four. It€™s a talent hunt show and people should vote for talent and not gender," he stresses. Javed Akhtar too was of the opinion that girls were getting a raw deal on Indian idol. In fact, when Puja, Deepali and Charu were once in the danger zone together, the whole set was shocked to silence. "I am ashamed," is all what Javed Akhtar managed to say.

While boys seem to be ahead of girls, some feel that the guys are also working harder by the day. "In the beginning I thought boys were better than girls but of late even the girls have spruced up their act," says Udit Narayan. Almeida echoes the same views. "From now on it will be an even contest between boys and girls." However, Anu is not too sure. "Anything can happen because boys are really working hard on their singing and performance," he adds.

Though the bottom four scare doesn€™t elude Puja, in Anu€™s opinion she is one of the best singers. "Puja is blessed with a unique voice. She only has to concentrate on her performance. On the other hand, Ankita is a fantastic singer but she needs to work on her singing," he points out.

As the contest gets hotter and the competition, tougher, the guessing game is also on. With nine more weeks to go, not only has the contest become exciting but the guessing game has also begun. Who will be the third Indian Idol?

Of course a lot of singing is yet to come. Buckets of tears and loads of laughter, nibbling of nails and harsh comments, scare of landing in the bottom four and fear of being voted out are still to be seen. But the cheering and rooting for favourite contestants has already begun. Not only the viewers but even judges seem to have their favourites. The competition is really tough but all hopes are pinned on Meiyang Chang, Amit Paul, Ankita Mishra, Deepali and Puja Chatterjee.

Among the boys, Anu finds Amit, Emon Chatterjee and Chang promising candidates. While Udit€™s top picks are Amit and Ankita, he finds lot of inconsistency in other contestants€™ singing. "Abhishek is a very good singer. So are Emon, Chang and Prashant. But their inconsistent performances can see them out of the contest," he feels.

"It€™s really difficult to say who will be the Indian Idol," says Albert Almeida. "It€™s a week to week survival and since people vote with their heart rather than mind it€™s difficult even to hazard a guess." Anu Malik, one of the judges on the show is also clueless, "The janta will be the final judge. My job is to point out flaws in singing and motivate contestants to give their best. But there is no denying the fact that it€™s not going to be easy for people to decide on who should be the Indian Idol because of the sheer potential and variety of talent Indian Idol 3 has."