Surprise Raja Hasan in Himesh Reshammiya Team

MUMBAI: Star Plus has renewed its vows with Gajjendra Singh, with a new music 'reality show' that brings musicians Himesh Reshammiya, Mika Singh, Mohit Chauhan, Shaan and Shankar Mahadevan on one platform.

The USP of the show, announced formally by the channel on Friday is that each celebrity musician will have under his tutelage accomplished young singers as well a newbie singer selected through auditions from among the country's multitudes. Christened Music Ka Maha Muqabla, the show takes the place of Star Plus' Voice of India, which ran for two seasons on the channel till last year. Amul continues to be the sponsor of Maha Muqabla. The channel has managed to tease viewers' curiosity by announcing that there will be a sixth team, captained by a mystery sixth celebrity. The identity of the team and its captain will be revealed only in the inuaugural episode.

Both Star Plus COO Sanjay Gupta and Saibaba Telefilms' Gajendrra Singh insist that Muqabla has managed to re-nvent a genre that was supposed to have been done to death. "For the first time, we will see the top names in the industry perform and compete. This is quite simply a coming together of the A list, a contest between the best of the best."

The show that will have a 13 week run, is expected to launch in a month's time.

Auditions will be held in Mumbai, Kolkta, Jaipur, Lucknow, Delhi and Ahmedabad, to hunt for the singer who will join each team representing a different region. According to Singh, instead of the SMS route, the show will opt for live voting meters provided to the audience in the stadium where the shows will be conducted.

A quick look at the five teams announced -

Himesh Reshammiya's Warriors - Aishwarya Majumdar, Raja Hasan and Vineet Singh

Mika's Blasters - Himani Kapoor, Lakhvinder Wadali, Toshi

Mohit's Fighters - Hemchandra Vedala, Ameya Date, Ravi Shukla

Shaan's Strikers - Anvesha Datta, Debojit Saha, Harshit Saxena

Shankar's Rockstars - Niti Mohan, Sharib Sabri, Swapnil Bandodkar

OMG..I was just saying to my hubby this morning that imagine if Raja was in Himesh's Gharana.....wow....I am not surprised, coz this will be the best for viewers to get glued to the show.

By the way, I don't see Aneek Dhar's name in the list?

I wish both my favourites were in one team..Raja and Anwesha.

WOW...Hemachandra is back too? this is getting exciting.

Originally posted by: Raghuraj

Looking at the teams it seems Himesh got the strongest team with Raja Hasan,Vinit and Aishwarya Mazumdar.

All the three singers are good and there is no weak link.

Originally posted by: Awww

I wish both my favourites were in one team..Raja and Anwesha.