Too much of a good thing is not necessarily good too. On the contrary, it can be a pain in the ...neck. That is what many among the audience and some members of the press discovered during the shooting of Sa Re Ga Ma in Indore. A. L. Chougule reports.
Last December Gajendra Singh, editor-director of the popular Zee TV music-based show Sa Re Ga Ma was in Ujjain where he was honoured with Kalidas Samman by Malwa Rang Manch. From Ujjain, Singh visited Indore to attend a press conference organised by Kala Prashati, a cultural organisation which promotes performing arts. After the press meet, the Kala Prashati members extended an open invitation to Singh to shoot Sa Re Ga Ma in Indore.
Singh was shown an air-conditioned indoor basketball stadium with seating arrangement for 5,000 people. The mild-mannered and
soft-spoken editor-director was impressed. Though Famous Studios in Mumbai was booked for the shooting of Sa Re Ga Ma in the first week of January, Singh told his production manager to cancel the booking and make all the necessary arrangements to shoot the show in Indore. And the shoot finally began on January 11 involving 36 participants from all over the country.
Date: January 15, Day: Saturday. Time: 4 pm. There is chaos and confusion at the gate of the stadium with more than 1,000 people struggling for entry. With ‘valid’ entry passes in our hands, we try to make our way in through the crowd but the police refuse to let us in. We make another attempt and we are pushed back. We show the police ‘press passes’ but they are not convinced. We wonder whether we have been called all the way from Mumbai to cover the shoot or to stand out in the crowd and argue with the
police who suspect our credentials. Finally with great dfficulty, an unit member of Sa Re Ga Ma helps us make our way inside the stadium which is packed to capacity.
On reaching inside we have to battle with another problem - lack of seating arrangements. Though we can see empty sofas in the front row we are told they are meant for the ‘special guests’ the members of Kala Prashati, the honourable chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, and his aides. After waiting for nearly half an hour we are provided with chairs in one corner. It’s 6 pm but there is no sign of the shoot getting underway because Pandit Ravi Shankar who is the judge for the finals and
chief minister Digvijay Singh who is the chief guest at the show are yet to make it to the venue. The question on everybody’s mind is, when will the shoot begin? Nobody has an answer.
It’s 7 pm and the shoot is yet to begin. Then a gentleman comes on stage and says the shoot will begin soon. This is a shoot and not a show,” he tells the crowd. We are already behind schedule. So please don’t disturb the shoot because any kind of disturbance will delay the proceedings. Suddenly there is pin-drop silence which is shattered by a rousing welcome for Sonu Nigam, the anchor of the show who greets the crowd with namaste.
Another rousing welcome is given to Pandit Ravi Shankar, followed by a similar routine for Digvijay Singh.
Looking prettier than his co-singer Shradha Pandit, Sonu opens the episode with a duet, Shabe malwa ka yeh roshan sama..., followed by a long introduction of Ravi Shankar and a big thank for Digvijay for making to to the show. After that the five finalists Prajakta, Ritu, Amrita, Sumant and Suraj are told to take their seats on the stage.
The first round begins with Ritu who sings Rasme ulfat ko nibhayen to nibhayen kaise in her melodious voice, followed by others who try their best to impress the judge with semi-classical numbers. As soon as the first round ends, the chief minister literally runs away from the sets, making everyone wonder as to how could the chief guest abandon the show barely 20 minutes after it began. Anyway, the show continues and after the second round which has singers singing without the help of orchestra ends, a short break is announced. We approach Gajendra Singh with a few queries but he has no time to answer them and tells us that he will answer our queries at the late-night party.
After 15 minutes the third round begins, followed by the fourth and fifth and then the formalities begin. Panditji is all praise for the talented singers who, in his opinion, have good tential. And then it’s time to declare the winners. While Panditji says it was a close contest, the winners are Prajakta and Sumant. And it’s pack up at 11 pm. One hour later we meet Gajendra Singh at the party sponsored by one Aggarwal from Indore. Too tired to speak, he orders a light peg of whiskey for himself. The first thing you want to know from him is how come there were five finalists instead of four. He says it was because of a tie
between Ritu Chatterjee and Amrita Kala in the third semi-final and the judges Poornima, Lalit Sen and Sandeep Chowtha despite their best effort to break the tie with two additional rounds couldn’t decide the winner. So finally both Ritu and Amrita were declared winners and both entered the final. That’s why instead of four we ended up having five finalists, says Singh.
