Karunya blitz to urge local votes article

Now that Hyderabad lad Karunya has reached the top three of Indian Idol 2, the city can expect to see a lot more of the talented singer in the coming weeks. The top three contestants will be touring the country in their bid to secure their place in the minds and hearts of the Indian audience. The "homecoming" of these singers will be the high point of this tour that will last for two weeks. The trip also seeks to boost viewer voting, particularly in the South.

"Visualisation is important," says Venkat Raman, of Seamless Mega Entertainment, who is overseeing Karunya's trip to the city. "The southern audience needs to vote. I have Sony's approval to promote Karunya in Hyderabad. I am planning this for Karunya because he is a deserving talent and needs the support of the southern audience to see him through."

Venkat Raman is planning nothing less than a fullscale blitz consisting of road shows in all the prominent colleges of the city, perfor mances at major retail outlets like PVR and IMAX and posters of Karunya splashed all over the city. The focus is on the youth because they are the ones who use the SMS format the most. "We will try to get the government involved too. Their support at this juncture will be crucial. A stage show at either People's Plaza or Nizam's Medical college grounds is also on the agenda," lets on Venkat.

As for Karunya, he is elated on reaching the top three but has learnt from his cousin, Hemachandra's experience, that it's the pub- lic votes that count. "It is a personal milestone for me. I want to thank all those people who have voted for me. I know that Hyderabadis have voted for me in large numbers and I hope they continue supporting me. Local votes are important. I want to request the South audience to please tune into Sony and vote for me, if they feel that I am talented enough to become the next Indian Idol."

The South has traditionally been averse to watching Hindi channels, preferring to watch regional channels instead. Also, there is a misconception that the South is basically a Tamil market. Chennai does not even get Sony, which airs Indian Idol 2. Because of the conditional access system (CAS) that is operational in that city, people usually do not watch the pay channels. All these factors may prove detrimental to Karunya's run at Indian Idol 2 in the near future.

Regionalism is also a factor that has plagued the show. When Mumbai lad Amey was voted out on Tuesday, college students agitated outside the Sony studios. The students were outraged that an alumnus of the first Indian Idol, Abhijeet Sawant's college, was ousted from the contest. Venkat Raman adds, " I talked to the Sony people after the incident and the format of voting through SMS was questioned. Once regionalism creeps in, the concept of real talent deserving the tile falls flat. However, we do want the Hyderabadi as well as the south audience to vote for Karunya because this is promotion of talent. Karunya is talented and he shouldn't fail to become the next Indian idol because the South audience did not vote."