The voices of India

A few seconds before Zee Television's reality show Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa Challenge 2005 announced its results last week, images were flashing in Debojit's head.

In the midst of a gigantic stage complete with arc lights where he stood "somewhere to the right, I don't really remember", with celebrities from the Indian entertainment industry and audiences watching from a small distance, Debojit remembers feeling the "sweat in the palms of my hands while images of people who mattered most to me flashed continuously in my head".

A second before his name was announced, he felt his heart skip a beat while a flash of light fell on his face and he heard his name lost in a sea of shouts and screams. He instantly knelt with folded hands, and though he received a trophy and shook hands and hugged an endless number of people, he admits he blanked out.

Meanwhile, in Silchar, Debojit's hometown near Assam, schoolchildren were busy with chart paper and coloured pens to create "Welcome Debojit" posters of every possible size for their new hero, a 29-year-old civil engineer who is now labelled for life as "Voice of India".

"My god," Debojit says excitedly, "people were everywhere: on the roads, at the airport, outside my house, everywhere." Silchar, in music director Ismail Darbar's own words, "was so lively even at 2 am, it was unbelievable". As part of the show's format, Darbar was Debojit's mentor and trained him for nearly eight months before the grand finale that garnered a total of 5.5 crore votes.

While Debojit is still trying to come to terms with his newfound stardom, Vinit, the runner-up of the mega budget reality series, is being begged by friends to return to Lucknow. "They want to welcome me with all the fanfare possible," he says tiredly. It is not hard to detect a tone of rejection in Vinit's voice.

For a person who was expecting to win till playback singer and anchor Shaan announced that a majority of votes came from the North-east region, Vinit feels a bit defeated by the entire system of voting. "Every week good singers were getting eliminated and though we know we are all very good singers, it is sad that I am a mere runner-up."

To explain to a 17-year-old that he is a winner in every right is exceedingly difficult, especially as Vinit took considerable risks to reach the grand finale of the reality series. He decided not to fill up the XII standard forms and reached Mumbai instead. Though his parents were initially reluctant to let their youngest son audition for the show, they finally relented.

Coming from a humble, middle-class Indian family where his father was the sole earner for a family of eight, Vinit was obviously looking forward to a winner's tag. "I just wanted to win for my family," he says. "The worst part of losing," he admits, "was that I couldn't introduce my girlfriend and ask her to come on stage. She was waiting to be called, she was right there."

The script of that moment was perhaps not destined to be written thus. Those precious seconds snatched away from Vinit's girlfriend turned out to be the loftiest moments in the life of Bandana, Debojit's wife, who along with her husband clutched the keys of their new apartment and went onto the stage with her husband.

A fashion designer by profession, Bandana encouraged Debojit to shift to Mumbai after they got married. "I knew he wanted to make a mark in singing and I wanted the world to hear him," she says. After being married for nearly three years, Bandana encouraged her husband to get into professional singing.

"I have seen my fair share of rejection too," remembers Debojit, who feels he has learnt the lingo of rejection. He offers, "People used to say 'keep up the good work' or 'keep trying, you sing so well'." While Bandana kept the kitchen fires burning, Debojit struggled, worked as an assistant and even sang for popular television serials.

He got what he thought was his golden chance and ended up singing for a full-length feature film. "It was shelved and I swear, I thought my time would never come." To add to his troubles was, according to Debojit, "the guilt of having a wife who said nothing, instead, supported me throughout and dealt with the pain I went through every day".

The channel too didn't leave any stone unturned to make the programme a phenomenal success. Though Zee television officials remain tightlipped about the exact investment that went into this multi-crore project, nearly Rs 40-50 lakh was pumped into the making of every episode.

"It is a programme that has been running successfully for almost a decade and we really put our heart and soul into it," says Gajendra Singh, director and the creative mind behind one of the longest-running shows on Indian television. "There is no compromise on quality," he says, adding, "that's why not only Vinit and Debojit but even the other contestants will be floored with recording contracts and live shows."

He's right. While other contestants are already managing their fair share of live shows, both Debojit and Vinit will have managers from Zee, for starters, to look after their new-found careers. While Debojit will leave for Mauritius to perform at a glittering film awards function, Vinit is packing his bags to head towards Dubai and Singapore. "I've already sung for Himesh Resshamiya who was also my mentor, and I just want to stay in Mumbai and work hard," says Vinit.

The real battle, he says, will start now. "No more public voting through SMSs," he says, forcing a smile. "Now it will be a battle of who can grab more recording contracts and stay in the minds of the Indian viewers and listeners."

And you thought the show was over? It's only just begun.