War of the spectacles!--aRTICLE

War of the spectacles!

The rivalry between Saawariya and OSO spills onto television

Subhash K Jha
hitlist@mid-day.com

It's not just the Diwali dhamaka and the fact that two super-big films are being released on the same Friday that makes the competition between Saawariya and Om Shanti Om so hot. Television too has taken to the impending war of the spectacles. This Saturday (September 29), while the Saawariya team will be seen on Star's Voice Of India, the Om Shanti Om team will appear at the same time on Zee's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa! Needless to say, the average couch potato's remote control is going to be in a state of perpetual anxiety!
Says Voice Of India producer-director Gajendra Singh, "Having Sanjay Leela Bhansali and the two Saawariya debutants on our show was such a delight. Bhansali is a very musical person, and handpicked all the songs from the great Raj Kapoor epics. When one of the contestants superbly sang the title song from Satyam Shivam Sundaram, he spontaneously came forward to greet him. It was a very emotional evening for us. This was also the first time Ranbir and Sonam recorded for TV show, and they were so confident."
Aap ki farmaish
Meanwhile, the Om Shanti Om special to be telecast simultaneously on Zee features Shreyas Talpade, Deepika Padukone and director Farah Khan. Shah Rukh Khan couldn't appear on the show because he is contract-bound with Star. "But he sent a list of requests to be performed. Those will be featured in the second half of the show. During the first half, we'll have the contestants singing Om Shanti Om tracks, since two of our judges (Vishal and Shekhar) are also the music directors of the film," informs Payaol Patel of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.