| Genre: | Reality television |
| Creator: | Simon Fuller |
| Based On: | Pop Idol |
| Theme Music Composer: | Julian Gingell Barry Stone Cathy Dennis Badshah |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Hindi |
| Num Seasons: | 14 |
| Num Episodes: | 317 |
| Executive Producer: | Anupama Mandloi (2010–present) Niret Alva (2005–2009) Nikhil J Alva (2005–2009) |
| Producer: | Namit Sharma (2010–present) Ashok (2008–09) |
| Cinematography: | Surindra Rao |
| Editor: | Umashankar Mishra Kumar Priyadarshi (2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) |
| Camera: | Nitesh Choudhary |
| Company: | ARSenic's Business Empire (2010–present) Fremantle Media India Miditech Pvt. Ltd. (2005–2009) Optimystix Entertainment (2004–2005) |
| Network: | Sony Entertainment Television |
| Last Aired: | present |
| Related: |
Indian Idol is an Indian Hindi-language singing reality competition on Sony TV. It is an Indian version of the British show Pop Idol and is part of the Indian Idol series. It has aired on Sony Entertainment Television since 2004.[1] Originally produced by Miditech Studios and its iconic producer-brothers, Niret Alva, Nikhil J Alva and Nivedith Alva, the series was an instant success. The brothers produced the first 5 seasons of the series and were instrumental in laying the foundation for its future success.[2]
Indian Idol's production and taping take place in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It broadcasts on Saturdays and Sundays and digitally airs on SonyLIV application.
| Cast member | Season | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 2004 | 2 2005 | 3 2007 | 4 2008 | 5 2010 | 6 2012 | 7 2013 | 8 2015 | 9 2016 | 10 2018 | 11 2019 | 12 2020 | 13 2022 | 14 2023 | 15 2024 | |||
| Anu Malik | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||||
| Sonu Nigam | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||||||||||
| Farah Khan | ● | ● | ● | ||||||||||||||
| Alisha Chinai | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Udit Narayan | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Javed Akhtar | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Sonali Bendre | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Kailash Kher | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Sunidhi Chauhan | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Salim Merchant | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Asha Bhosle | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Vishal Dadlani | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||||||
| Shekhar Ravjiani | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Shreya Ghoshal | ● | ● | ● | ||||||||||||||
| Javed Ali | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Neha Kakkar | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||||||||||||
| Himesh Reshammiya | ● | ● | ● | ||||||||||||||
| Sonu Kakkar | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Kumar Sanu | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Kavita Krishnamurti | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Badshah | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Neeti Mohan | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Aman Verma | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Mini Mathur | ● | ● | ● | ||||||||||||||
| Hussain Kuwajerwala | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||||||||
| Meiyang Chang | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Abhijeet Sawant | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Karan Wahi | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Mandira Bedi | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Asha Negi | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Paritosh Tripathi | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Manish Paul | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Aditya Narayan | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||||||||||||
| Bharti Singh | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Haarsh Limbachiyaa | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Jay Bhanushali | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Rithvik Dhanjani | ● | ||||||||||||||||
| Pawandeep Rajan | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Mohd. Danish | ● | ● | |||||||||||||||
| Episodes | Originally aired | Winner | Runner-up | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||||
| 1 | 27 | 30 October 2004 | Abhijeet Sawant | Amit Sana | ||
| 2 | 28 | Sandeep Acharya | N. C. Karunya | |||
| 3 | Prashant Tamang | Amit Paul | ||||
| 4 | 19 September 2008 | 1 March 2009 | Sourabhee Debbarma | Kapil Thapa | ||
| 5 | 42 | Sreerama Chandra Mynampati | Bhoomi Trivedi / Rakesh Maini | |||
| 6 | 30 | 1 June 2012 | 1 September 2012 | Vipul Mehta | Amit Kumar / Devender Pal Singh | |
| IIJ 1 (7) | Anjana Padmanabhan | Debanjana Karmakar | ||||
| IIJ 2 (8) | 30 May 2015 | 6 September 2015 | Ananya Nanda | Nahid Afrin | ||
| 9 | L. V. Revanth | Khuda Baksh | ||||
| 10 | 50 | Salman Ali | Ankush Bhardwaj | |||
| 11 | 40 | 12 October 2019 | Sunny Hindustani | Rohit Raut | ||
| 12 | 75 | 28 November 2020 | 15 August 2021 | Pawandeep Rajan | Arunita Kanjilal | |
| 13 | 60 | 10 September 2022 | April 2, 2023 | Rishi Singh | Deboshmita Roy | |
| 14 | 43 | 7 October 2023 | 3 March 2024 | Vaibhav Gupta | Subhadeep Das Choudhary | |
| 15 | 26 October 2024 | |||||
Top 12 Contestants
| Name | Age | Hometown | Result | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abhijeet Sawant | 23 | Mumbai | 1st | ||
| Amit Sana | 21 | Bhilai | 2nd | ||
| Rahul Vaidya | 17 | Nagpur | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd | |
| Prajakta Shukre | 16 | Jabalpur | 3rd Runner-up | 4th | |
| Ravinder Ravi | 29 | Ludhiana | 5th | ||
| Aditi Paul | 25 | Chennai | 6th | ||
| Mukesh Pancholi | 26 | Faridabad | 7th | ||
| Harish Moyal | 26 | Itanagar | 8th | ||
| Rahul Saxena | 22 | Ghaziabad | 9th | ||
| Amit Tandon | 25 | Kolkata | 10th | ||
| Vishal Kothari | 21 | Mumbai | 11th | ||
| Priyanka Venkateswar | 17 | Mumbai | 12th |
Top 12 Contestants
| Name | Age | Hometown | Result | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandeep Acharya | 21 | Bikaner | 1st | ||
| N. C. Karunya | 19 | Hyderabad | 2nd | ||
| Anuj Sharma | 29 | Himachal Pradesh | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd | |
| Ameya Date | 26 | Mumbai | 4th | ||
| Antara Mitra | 18 | West Bengal | 5th | ||
| Meenal Jain | 20 | Indore | 6th | ||
| Ravi K. Tripathi | 29 | Uttar Pradesh | 7th | ||
| Panna Gill | 24 | Punjab | 8th | ||
| Monali Thakur | 20 | Kolkata | 9th | ||
| Neha Kakkar | 17 | Rishikesh | 10th | ||
| Yashashree Bhave | 24 | Satara | 11th | ||
| Sagar Sawarkar | 20 | Mumbai | 12th |
Top 13 Contestants
| Name | Age | Hometown | Result | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prashant Tamang | 24 | Darjeeling | 1st | ||
| Amit Paul | 24 | Shillong | 2nd | ||
| Emon Chatterjee | 17 | Kolkata | 3rd | ||
| Ankita Mishra | 17 | Kanpur | 4th | ||
| Meiyang Chang | 24 | Dhanbad | 5th | ||
| Pooja Chatterjee | 18 | Dhanbad | 6th | ||
| Deepali Kishore | 18 | Patna | 7th | ||
| Abhishek Kumar | 20 | Mumbai | 8th | ||
| Parleen Singh Gill | 19 | Ambala | 9th | ||
| Charu Semwal | 19 | Dehradun | 10th | ||
| Smita Adhikari | 24 | Kolkata | 11th | ||
| Jolly Das | 25 | Kolkata | 12th | ||
| Richa Aneja | 17 | Punjab | 13th |
The fourth season of Indian Idol was aired on Sony TV from 19 September 2008 to 1 March 2009. For the first time in Indian Idol history, there were two women among the top three finalists. Sourabhee Debbarma who hails from Agartala, Tripura won the competition and became the first female contestant to do so. By doing so, she also won a contract of Rs. 1 crore with Sony Entertainment Television and a TATA Winger. She released an album, Meherbaan, as per a contract with Sony. Kapil Thapa was runner-up while Torsha Sarkar finished third.
One of the contestants, Bhavya Pandit, received an offer to sing the song "Aaja Lehraate" for the film What's Your Raashee, alongside singer Gautam Mrinaal.[3]
Top 14 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sourabhee Debbarma | Agartala | 1st[4] | ||
| Kapil Thapa | Dehradun | 2nd | ||
| Torsha Sarkar | Bhagalpur | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd | |
| Rajdeep Chatterjee | Jamshedpur | 4th | ||
| Remo Ghosh | Dimapur | 5th | ||
| Bhavya Pandit | Pune | 6th | ||
| Prasenjit Kosambi | Kolhapur | 7th | ||
| Bhanu Pratap Singh | Jaipur | 8th | ||
| Mohit Lawani | Delhi | 9th | ||
| Kuldeep Singh Chauhan | Banda | 10th | ||
| Priyanka Negi | Dehradun | 11th | ||
| Gautam Mrinal | Jamui | 12th | ||
| Tulika Ganguly | Faridabad | 13th | ||
| Ananya Mishra | Lucknow | 14th |
Shreya Ghoshal
Salim Merchant
Top 13 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sreerama Chandra | Hyderabad | 1st | ||
| Bhoomi Trivedi | Gujarat | 2nd | ||
| Rakesh Maini | Mumbai | |||
| Swaroop Khan | Rajasthan | 4th | ||
| Shivam Pathak | Gujarat | 5th | ||
| Tia Kar | Mumbai | 6th | ||
| Naushad Ali | Rajasthan | 7th | ||
| Shashi Suman | Patna | 8th | ||
| Arpita Khan | West Bengal | 9th | ||
| Yashraj Kapil | Faridabad | 10th | ||
| Manisha Karmakar | Kolkata | 11th | ||
| Meghna Kumar | Jhansi | 12th | ||
| Vishwas Rai | Allahabad | 13th |
The sixth season aired on Sony TV from 1 June 2012 to 1 September 2012. The winner of the sixth season was Vipul Mehta.[5] [6] [7]
Salim Merchant
On 23 June 2012, the judges selected the top 16 contestants to perform in the Gala Rounds.
Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vipul Mehta | Amritsar | 1st | ||
| Amit Kumar | Amritsar | 2nd | ||
| Devender Pal Singh | Ludhiana | |||
| Poorvi Kautish | 4th | |||
| Sohini Mishra | Cuttack | 5th | ||
| Amitabh Narayan | 6th | |||
| Deeksha Toor | Delhi | 7th | ||
| Deepak Maher | 8th | |||
| Kaushik Deshpande | Mumbai | 9th | ||
| Kritika Tanwar | 10th | |||
| Charith Dixit | Chandigarh | 11th | ||
| Ravi Kumar Mishra | 12th | |||
| Ritika Raj | Patna | 13th | ||
| Saumya Mishra | 14th | |||
| Simran Kaur | Punjab | 15th | ||
| Amrita Bharati | Bhubaneswar | 16th |
Top 11 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anjana Padmanabhan | Bengaluru | 1st | ||
| Debanjana Karmakar | Kolkata | 2nd | ||
| Anmol Jaswal | Jammu and Kashmir | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd | |
| Nirvesh Dave | Ahmedabad | 3rd Runner-up | 4th | |
| Sugandha Date | Nagpur | 5th | ||
| Sonakshi Kar | Kolkata | 6th | ||
| Priyam Borpatragohain | Assam | 7th | ||
| Akash Sharma | Haryana | 8th | ||
| Sankalp Yaduwanshi | Moradabad | 9th | ||
| Eman Chaudhary | Assam | 10th | ||
| Aryan Das | Cuttack | 11th |
Indian Idol Junior Season 2 started on 30 May 2015 and finished on 6 September 2015.
Salim Merchant
Sonakshi Sinha replaced Shalmali Kholgade
Top 13 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ananya Nanda | Bhubaneswar | 1st | ||
| Nahid Afrin | Assam | 2nd | ||
| Nithyashree Venkataramanan | Chennai | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd | |
| Vaishnav Girish | Thrissur | 4th | ||
| Moti Khan | Rajasthan | 5th | ||
| Niharika Nath | Agartala | 6th | ||
| Ranita Banerjee | Kolkata | 7th | ||
| Sreelakshmi Belmannu | Bangalore | 8th | ||
| Ajay Brijwasi | Mathura | 9th | ||
| Yumna Ajin | Vengara | 10th | ||
| Surendra Singh Panwar | Rajasthan | 11th | ||
| Vidhi Jaswal | Jammu and Kashmir | 12th | ||
| Shubhankar | Kolkata | 13th |
Paritosh Tripathi
Top 14 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| L. V. Revanth | Visakhapatnam | 1st[8] | |
| Khuda Baksh | Punjab | 2nd[9] | |
| PVNS Rohit | Hyderabad | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Maalavika Sunder | Chennai | 4th | |
| Mohit Chopra | New Delhi | 5th | |
| Tajinder Singh | Faridabad | 6th | |
| R P Shravan | Chennai | 7th | |
| Manya Narang | New Delhi | 8th | |
| Hardeep Singh | Ludhiana | 9th | |
| Jeli Kayi | Itanagar | 10th[10] | |
| Bharti Gupta | Ghaziabad | 11th | |
| Mansi Bhardwaj | Delhi | 12th | |
| Stuti Tiwari | Delhi | 13th | |
| Saumya Mishra | Renukut | 14th | |
Javed Ali replaced Anu Malik[11]
Top 14 Contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salman Ali | Mewat | 1st[12] | ||
| Ankush Bhardwaj | Kotgarh | 2nd | ||
| Neelanjana Ray | Alipurduar | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd | |
| Nitin Kumar | Una | 3rd Runner-up | 4th | |
| Vibhor Parashar | New Delhi | 4th Runner-up | 5th | |
| Kunal Pandit | Mumbai | 6th | ||
| Renu Nagar | Alwar | 7th | ||
| Soumya Chakraborty | Kolkata | 8th | ||
| Avanti Patel | Mumbai | 9th | ||
| Saurabh Valmiki | Lakhimpur Kheri | 10th | ||
| Biswajit Mohapatra | Odisha | 11th | ||
| Krishnakali Saha | Tripura | 12th | ||
| Indira Das | Kolkata | 13th | ||
| Sonia Gazmer | Kolkata | 14th |
The 11th season started to air on 12 October 2019 on Sony TV. It was being hosted by singer Aditya Narayan.[13] Neha Kakkar has returned as one of the judges on popular demand along with Vishal Dadlani and Anu Malik, who came back to the show as a judge after his suspension from the judging panel for Me Too allegations. He was then replaced by Himesh Reshammiya.[14] [15]
Himesh Reshammiya replaced Anu Malik
Neha Kakkar
Vishal Dadlani
Aditya Narayan
Top 16 contestants
| Name | Hometown | Elimination | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunny Hindustani | Bathinda | 1st[16] | ||
| Rohit Shyam Raut | Latur | 2nd | ||
| Ankona Mukherjee | Bankura | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd | |
| Ridham Kalyan | Amritsar | 3rd Runner-up | 4th | |
| Adriz Ghosh | Murshidabad | 4th Runner-up | 5th | |
| Shahzaan Mujeeb | Aligarh | 6th | ||
| Rishabh Chaturvedi | Amritsar | 7th | ||
| Stuti Tiwari | New Delhi | 8th | ||
| Jannabi Das | New Delhi | 9th | ||
| Azmat Hussain | Jaipur | 10th | ||
| Chetna Bharadwaj | Ghaziabad | 11th | ||
| Kaivalya Kejkar | Nagpur | 12th | ||
| Subhadeep Das Chowdhury | Kolkata | 13th | ||
| Pallav Singh | Ballia | 14th | ||
| Nidhi Kumari | Jamshedpur | 15th | ||
| Chelsi Behura | Orissa | 16th |
The 12th season started on 28 November 2020 on Sony TV. The grand finale aired from 12 noon to 12 midnight on 15 August 2021.[17] Pawandeep Rajan was declared the winner of the season and Arunita Kanjilal became the 1st Runner-up.[18] This was the longest running season of Indian Idol.
Although Vishal Dadlani, Neha Kakkar and Himesh Reshammiya were the original judges, when the shoot shifted out of Mumbai, then Vishal Dadlani, and Neha Kakkar couldn't join and makers replaced them by Anu Malik and Sonu Kakkar.
Aditya Narayan was the original host but Bharti & Harsh, Rithvik and Jay replaced him when he came out to be COVID +ve. Bharti and Harsh replaced him on February 28.
The judges have decided to do a power play for 9 weeks and let the audience decide who they want to see in the Top 8. Elimination will happen after the 9 weeks of power play. This season was extended because the contestants have given so much love and entertainment to the audience in the COVID pandemic. The 9 weeks of power play were completed and Anjali Gaikwad got eliminated.
Top 15 contestants
| Name | Hometown | Result | Standing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pawandeep Rajan | Uttarkhand | 1st | ||
| Arunita Kanjilal | Kolkata | 2nd | ||
| Sayli Kamble Patil | Mumbai | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd | |
| Mohd Danish | Muzaffarnagar | 3rd Runner-up | 4th | |
| Nihal Tauro | Mangalore | 4th Runner-up | 5th | |
| Shanmukha Priya | Visakhapatnam | 5th Runner-up | 6th | |
| Ashish Kulkarni | Pune | 7th | ||
| Sawai Bhatt | Nagaur | 8th | ||
| Anjali Gaikwad | Ahmednagar | 9th | ||
| Nachiket Lele | Kalyan | 10th | ||
| Sireesha Bhagavatula | Visakhapatnam | 11th | ||
| Anushka Banerjee | Chandigarh | 12th | ||
| Vaishnav Girish | Thrissur | 13th | ||
| Samyak Prasana | Delhi | 14th | ||
| Sahil Solanki | Hisar | 15th |
The Ground Auditions started in July 2022. The show started on 10 September 2022.[19] The finale was held on April 2, 2023, with Rishi Singh being declared as the winner of the season along with Deboshmita Roy as the 1st runner up.[20]
Top 15 Contestants
The judges have decided to do a power play for 4 weeks and let the audience decide who they want to see in the Top 7. Elimination will happen after the 4 weeks of power play. The 4 weeks of power play were completed and Navdeep Wadali got eliminated on February 26, 2023. The last contestant who got eliminated from the show was Senjuti Das on March 25, 2023, leaving the top 6 finalists[21] to compete for the Indian Idol trophy.
| Name | Hometown | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rishi Singh | Ayodhya | 1st | |
| Deboshmita Roy | Kolkata | 2nd | |
| Chirag Kotwal | Bhaderwah | 2nd Runner-up | 3rd |
| Bidipta Chakraborty | Kolkata | 3rd Runner-up | 4th |
| Shivam Singh | Vadodara | 4th Runner-up | 5th |
| Sonakshi Kar | Kolkata | 5th Runner-up | 6th |
| Senjuti Das | Kolkata | 7th | |
| Navdeep Wadali | Amritsar | 8th | |
| Kavya Limaye | Vadodara | 9th | |
| Vineet Singh | Lucknow | 10th | |
| Anushka Patra | Kolkata | 11th | |
| Rupam Bharnarhia | Amritsar | 12th | |
| Sanchari Sengupta | Kolkata | 13th | |
| Pritam Roy | Kolkata | 14th | |
| Shagun Pathak | Jharkhand | 15th | |
See main article: Indian Idol (Hindi TV series) season 14. The fourteenth season premiered on 7 October 2023, with the theme Ek Awaz Lakhon Ehsaas (lit. One Voice, Million Emotion). The season was hosted by Hussain Kuwajerwala. Aditya Narayan hosted the show for a week, in the absence of Kuwajerwala. Kumar Sanu, Shreya Ghoshal and Vishal Dadlani were the judges. On 3 March 2024, the season concluded, with Vaibhav Gupta crowned as the winner, with Subhadeep Das Choudhary finishing as the runner-up.
See main article: Indian Idol (Hindi TV series) season 15.
The fifteenth season premiered in October 2024, with the theme Jo Gayega, Wo Nazar Aayega (lit. --). The season was hosted by Aditya Narayan. Badshah, Shreya Ghoshal and Vishal Dadlani are the judges.
Shreya Ghoshal who judged this show's seasons 7,14 and 15, in her interview with Baibhav Dutta of The Economic Times YouTube channel revealed that this show's makers asked her and other judges to praise every contestant. According to Dutta since 2022, judges of Indian Idol do not give critical comments or point out flaws in singing after a contestant performed, and they praise everyone, and the audience also gets confused. In 2021, Amit Kumar also expressed the same thing after he appeared as a guest judge, he said that the makers of Indian Idol specifically told him while filming that you have to praise every contestant and not criticize.[22] [23] In 2018, a participant Nishant Kaushik revealed on Twitter the suffering and ill-treatment of the people who come for the auditions of this show. He expressed his experience with his Indian Idol audition. He elaborated that, he participated in the 2012 Indian Idol audition, people of this show do not give any service to the participants, and contestants kept standing with no access to food, drinking water, or toilet. Former host of Indian idol Mini Mathur in response to this tweet thread wrote these kinds of things happened in Indian reality shows, that is why she quit doing work in them.[24] In 2021 many fans alleged the show for showing scripted stories to gain TRP. In the season fans expressed on social media that the love angle of Pawandeep Rajan and Arunita Kanjilal was fake, and makers are deliberately trying to show the love angle.[25] The show frequently alleged of showing fake emotional, drama and sob stories of the contestants. Amid the 12th season viewers slammed makers for altering the performance of Pawandeep Rajan.[26]