Girls vote girls out of talent shows

Dubbed Anu Malik's dream 'female Idol', Antara Mitra seemed to be the frontrunner on Indian Idol 2, getting rave reviews from all the judges for her voice, tone and screen presence. But in a surprising turnaround, Antara was voted out of the show by the audience. Female contestants seem to have no luck on the talent shows, be it Himani Kapoor from Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge, or Monali Thakur, Meenal Jain and Rupali Das in Indian Idol 1 or Neha Kakkar from Indian Idol 2.

Just like Antara, Meenal too was deemed superior by judges to the two male finalists, Anuj and Sandeep, who finally made it to the gala round, but audiences disagreed. When Anuj was declared safe and Antara eliminated, a regretful Sonu Nigam said, "I now regret our decision of getting back Anuj who would have been eliminated after the piano round. He hasn't shown the kind of talent that we expected out of him."

For her part, Antara has some theories of her own about audience voting. "I don't blame the audience because everybody has their own favourites. In fact, we have been discussing the eliminations after every show and have come to the conclusion that it's mostly young girls who watch reality shows, and unlike boys, they are very serious about voting. As is but natural, girls will always vote for guys. It doesn't really matter in the end as long as people who matter to me know that I was good," says Antara philosophically.

Anu Malik is still yet to get over the fact that his favourite female idol aspirant will no longer be on the show. "He was sweet enough to come on to the stage and tell me that I would sing for him. I just couldn't react," says Antara. While Antara may be determined to take things in her stride, Anu Malik is not above voicing his opinion.

"Females have voted out a deserving female. It's rather sad. I always wanted Amey and Karunya to come to this stage along with Antara, but Anuj and Sandeep, definitely not," he says. Meenal Jain, who many feel also got the raw end of the stick, admits she finds the audience voting system disappointing. "More disturbing is the fact that regionalism is creeping into the voting system so badly that unless people use their judgement carefully, we will have to suffer undeserving candidates." she warns.

"Females have voted out a deserving female. It's rather sad. I always wanted Amey and Karunya to come to this stage along with Antara, but Anuj and Sandeep, definitely not."

Anu Malik, Music director