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Airtel Super Singer 5 – Thamizhagathil Brahmaanda Kuralukkaana Thedal, the fifth season of the Airtel Super Singer show, is a reality-based Indian singing competition in Tamil language that aired on Vijay TV. It was designed to be a talent hunt to find the best voice of Tamil Nadu. The show premiered on 1 June 2015, and episodes were telecasted on weekdays each week at 9:30 pm. Persons above the age of 16 years were permitted to audition to showcase their talent on Vijay TV's platform. This program was sponsored by Airtel.
The show was hosted by Makapa Anand, Priyanka Deshpande, and Bhavana Balakrishnan. For the performance rounds by the top 30 contestants, voice trainer Ananth Vaidyanathan appeared fairly regularly on the show. Playback Singers, Usha Uthup, Mano, Srinivas and P. Unnikrishnan returned as permanent judges who appeared regularly throughout the show. The third permanent judge of the show consisted of appearances by either former junior season judge, Usha Uthup, or current junior season judge, Mano, while the show necessarily continues to seek a suitable replacement. Following the request of viewers, Sujatha Mohan ceased her regular permanent judge appointment, but occasionally attended to judge contestant performances.
Special guest judges or guest performers who appeared on the show during the season consisted of a variety of eminent playback singers and music directors, including P. Susheela, Vani Jairam, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Vairamuthu, S.P. Sailaja, Nithyasree Mahadevan, Sudha Raghunathan, Sikkil Gurucharan, Pushpavanam Kuppuswamy, S. Sowmya, T. L. Maharajan, Gana Bala, Velmurugan, Chinnaponnu, Vijay Prakash, as well as stars from the junior version of the show, such as permanent judges K.S. Chithra and Malgudi Subha, and former contestants of prior seasons of the show.
Ground auditions were held in the cities of Chennai, Coimbatore, and Trichy.[1] Ground level auditions were telecast from 2 June 2015. Preliminary round auditions were telecast from 3 June 2015.
The auditions were held in various parts of Tamil Nadu, and were telecast until 3 July 2015. First round audition judges included season 3 winner Saicharan, season 4 winner Diwakar, and former contestants from those seasons such as Sathyaprakash, Pooja Vaidyanath, Santhosh Hariharan, and Sonia. Second and third round audition judges included S. P. Charan, Pushpavanam Kuppuswamy, Devan Ekambaram, James Vasanthan, Mahathi, Sowmya, and Shalini. Zonal audition judges were permanent judges from the junior version of the show, Malgudi Subha, Mano, and K.S. Chithra. A total of 33 contestants were selected for the finals, including local, international, and former contestants.
This round required the contestants to perform songs of a Carnatic classical music genre. Viewers agreed with judges that the round held during this season outmatched previous seasons in terms of orchestra, judging panel, and overall talent.
The top 6 remaining contestants were required to perform.
At the conclusion of the round, was eliminated.
The top 5 remaining contestants performed against top 5 contestants from seasons 3 and 4, as well as seasons 2, 3, and 4 of the junior version of the show.
The grand finale was held on 18 March 2016 at DB Jain College in Thuraipakkam, Chennai.[2] Telecast live from 7:30 pm (Indian Standard Time),[2] the running time for the episode exceeded 5 hours, having concluded after 12:45 am on the following day,[2] 19 March 2016. Various playback singers, performers, and music lovers attended the event.[3]
| Order | Contestant | Song | Original artist(s) | Lyricist | Music director | Movie(s) (year) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SS02 Fareedha | "Gnyana Pazhathai" & "Pazham Neeyappa" | K. B. Sundarambal | Kannadasan | K. V. Mahadevan | Thiruvilaiyadal (1965) |
| 2 | SS03 Rajaganapathy | "Arupadai Veedu Konda Thirumuruga" | Sirkazhi Govindarajan | Kannadasan | K. V. Mahadevan | Kandan Karunai (1967) |
| 3 | SS04 Siyad | "Raasaathi En Usir" & "Vidukathaiyam Indha Vazhkai" | Shahul Hameed | Vairamuthu | A. R. Rahman | Thiruda Thiruda (1993) |
| 4 | SS07 Lakshmi | "Yenge" & "Margazhi Thinkal" | K. S. Chitra & Srinivas; S. Janaki & P. Unnikrishnan | Vairamuthu | A. R. Rahman | Kandukondain & Sangamam (1999) |
| 5 | SS05 Anand | "Vedam Anuvilum Oru Nadam" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam & S. P. Sailaja | Vairamuthu | Ilaiyaraaja | Salangai Oli (1983) |
| 6 | SS07 Lakshmi | "Mona Mona" | Mano, Neeti Mohan, & Tanvi Shah | Madhan Karky | A. R. Rahman | Lingaa (2014) |
| 7 | SS05 Anand | "Anbin Vaasale" | Haricharan | Madhan Karky | A. R. Rahman | Kadal (2012) |
| 8 | SS03 Rajaganapathy | "Aaluma Doluma" | Anirudh Ravichander & Badshah | Rokesh | Anirudh Ravichander | Vedalam (2015) |
| 9 | SS04 Siyad | "Vidukathaiya" | Hariharan | Vairamuthu | A. R. Rahman | Muthu (1995) |
| 10 | SS02 Fareedha | "Saregame Padhanise" ("Secret of Success") | Lucky Ali, Clinton Cerejo, Blaaze & Vasundhara Das | Vaali, Pa. Vijay & Blaaze | A. R. Rahman | Boys (2003) |
| Name | Position | Prize | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SS05 Anand | Winner | Apartment worth 7 million rupees | |
| SS02 Faridha | First Runner-up | 1 million rupees cash prize | |
| SS03 Rajaganapathy | Second Runner-up & Judge's Choice of the Day | 1 million rupees cash prize | |
| SS07 Lakshmi Pradeep | 4th-placed | 300,000 rupees cash prize | |
| SS04 Siyad | 5th-placed | 200,000 rupees cash prize |
The Hindu newspaper and other media outlets reported that the Tamil language show, its winning contestant, and its telecasting channel Star Vijay landed in controversy after the finale;[4] "trending on social media for all the wrong reasons".[4] Fans were enraged as details emerged that winning contestant Anand Aravindakshan already featured as a playback singer for at least ten songs in Indian films, including songs in Tamil films.[5] Actor and filmmaker, Lakshmy Ramakrishnan wrote on Facebook that "this cannot have happened without the channel’s knowledge" and that "unethical practices have resulted in victimising not just Anand, but other participants and, of course, the audience, who spend time and money by sending SMSes to support talented youngsters."[4] [6] As the show has a reputation of finding budding singing talent and giving them the exposure and platform to enter the Indian film industry,[4] social media users criticised the channel of not being upfront about the fact that a professional singer had participated as a contestant in the show and accused the channel of wrongdoing.[4]
According to media reports, the controversy arose after a Facebook post accused TV channel Star Vijay of flouting its competition rules, and hiding the contestant's true identity from the public.[5] Star Vijay responded to the accusations in printed media to assert that it did not hide the contestant's identity and that the current rules permitted existing playback singers to participate in the competition.[7] [8] Officials from the channel declared they see no need to disclose information to the public. The show's permanent judge and playback singer Srinivas also suggested it was unnecessary to rake up the past as the contestant won the most votes.[9]
Accusations of wrongdoing were also made against the winning contestant, who refuted the allegations and expressed his dismay in a Facebook post.[10] Viewers and social media users acknowledged that although the information was accessible on the contestant's Facebook and some other sites as refuted by the contestant,[11] the channel probably should have explicitly stated the information to be fair,[11] having failed to do so in at least 200 of its episodes. Social media users also noted that Star Vijay hid most of the show's episodes from audience scrutiny during the season; although almost all episodes from the season were made available for viewing-on-demand at the time of the finale, various episodes from its past seasons and spin-off seasons have been hidden from the public.