The grand finale of the Voice of Bangalore took place in Garuda Mall on September 14. Of the six finalists, Supriya and Sakthi Prasad, won the coveted title ‘Gili- Voice of Bangalore’.

The talent hunt jointly organised by Garuda Mall and Radio City provided a platform for these young and fresh talents to launch themselves in Kannada and Hindi film industries as play back singers. This is for the first time in South India; six talents competed for the making of play back singers from the City. The judges included those from the film and musical fraternity, Indrajith Lankesh, Bollywood super singer Kumar Sanu, Guru Kiran and Ashwini Ram Prasad. Among the finalists, Divya H won the ‘Radio City Listeners Choice Award’.

Diverse backgrounds
Ironically the ‘Voices of Bangalore’ were not voices from Bangalore. Supriya Ramakrishnaiah is a Telugu  girl, while Shakti Prasad Mohapatra is from North India, both working in Bangalore. Both surprised the judges with their pronunciation and expressive singing in the first round, which was the Kannada song round. In the second, Hindi song round, Supriya sang the mesmerising song, ‘Ek Radha, Ek Meera’, while Sakhi caught the audience with his foot tapping number, “Tere bin nahin jeena”. Duet song was the last round.

Apart from being the ‘Voice of Bangalore’, the winner grabbed an exciting opportunity to sing in Indrajith Lankesh’s next Hindi venture, ‘Life’ starring Shiney Ahuja. Music Director Guru Kiran also signed them for his next movie. They also gain Rs 1 lakh  worth Gili Diamonds, exciting free stay packages from Country Vacations and branded merchandise.

Great experience
Kumar Sanu said that it was a wonderful opportunity to hear them singing and to express his views before them. But he alerted the winners not to go after fame. He says, “ More than 400 singers in Bombay are waiting to get an opportunity like this. One must not forget that hardwork has no substitute”. When asked about the aspects to be judged for selection, he said “Expressions, pronunciation, performance are the criteria”.

Excellent turnout
More than 5,500 contestants were auditioned by eminent personalities from music industry like, Chandrika Gururaj, Praveen Godkhindi, Pallavi, Sangeetha Katti, Ganesh Desai, Supriya Acharya, Sunitha S, Fayaz Khan, Jimmy Raj, Satyaprakash, Biju Nair and others. The auditions took place at Garuda Mall, ITPL, WIPRO, National College and M S Ramaiah institute of Technology. Out of these, 17 singers were selected for the Semi finals. The cream among these, six entered the final namely, Divya H., Supriya, Priyanka, Aniket, Shakti and Raghupati.

The Central Atrium of Garuda Mall was filled with music lovers, cheering and clapping to encourage their favourite singers. Some had even brought banners with the posters of some of these singers. Eventhough the selection was tough for the judges, viewers had an unforgettable musical extravaganza.