more on idols n gurukul winners

The latest crooners on the block, Sachin and Supriya winning Nach Baliye and Qazi Tauqeer and Ruprekha Banerjee, winners of Fame Gurukul, might be singing their way to success at the moment, but if the past is anything to go by, it's a tough road ahead. With bands such as Viva and Aasma not being able to live up to the hype, the past record doesn't seem too encouraging. In fact Viva, the first product of reality shows, broke up long time back.

With a number of singing shows coming up and millions trying their luck, the pertinent question remains: Does the hype become too much for the fresh talent to handle? What leads to their failure in the market? "The hype puts a lot of pressure on us as we have to live up to the expectations. But everything dep-ends on a person's ability," says Qazi.

Ravindra Upadhyay, winner of Channel [V] Super Singer, also accepts that it becomes tough to handle the "huge" hype. "Like a rocket, the channels send us to the top but it becomes difficult for us to fulfil everyone's expectations," he says. Adds Rahul Saxena, one of the Indian Idol finalists, "Definitely TV channels create a lot of hype around a show but we can't do anything about it."

Music director Sandeep Chowta, who was one of the judges for Channel [V] Popstars, believes that there is no doubt about their talent. "Channels are the biggest culprits here. They lose interest in the winners once the show is over. They are used like slaves to increase a channel's popularity and TRPs. If you have made them winners for three months, you can't abandon them suddenly."

Reasons singer Kumar Sanu, "These TV shows are a gimmick to make quick money." Singer Abhijeet seconds his opinion. He feels that stars can not be found through SMSes. "These young singers have no talent and they are certainly not the best," he says.

According to music director Shravan of the Nadeem-Shravan duo, channels should make all possible efforts to promote their singers. "Otherwise nobody would like to take the risk of roping them in. For instance, I would rather go for Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan or Shaan than any of these singers. Marketing of a product is as important as producing them," he adds. He also thinks that these rising stars lack the knowledge of music and the will to riyaaz regularly.

"Most of them sing Bollywood numbers in the contest and this doesn't really qualify them as good singers," he adds. Music director Himesh Resh-ammiya believes that the level of talent has to be very high in this competitive industry. "A lot of bathroom singers are also appearing on these reality shows," he says.

On the other hand, Amar K. Deb, head honcho, Channel [V], believes that the music industry should be more open to accept these talents. "The music industry seems to be in doldrums. They are only relying on remixes. Why can't they give these young singers more opportunities?" questions Deb.

Ashish Kaul, senior vice-president, Zee Telefilms, believes that Indians have a different sense of entertainment. "A gimmick can work for a long time in foreign countries but not in India. These reality shows are just used to attract viewers and achieve high TRPs," he says.

"But the audience cannot be fooled, they want quality," he adds.However, according to Ajay Vidyasagar, vice-president, content and communication, Star India, if a channel or a company makes a new product, it will surely market it. "If these shows were over-hyped, people wouldn't have been following the programmes and the stars," he says.

Agrees Tarun Katiyal, business head, Sony India. He says, "If there is an inherent talent in a person, hype will not affect his career. Look at Abhijeet Sawant, he is the No. 1 pop artist of the year. "We couldn't agree more as the fear of failure doesn't seem to deter the huge number of wannabe Indian Idols who are queuing up to be the next Abhijeet Sawant.