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BANGALORE:
Miditech will be producing the third edition of Zee Kannada’s
talent hunt Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa. This edition (season 3)
is for children between 7 and 12 years and has been named
Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs.
The
show is to be directed by Miditech’s creative director
S Balaraj and hosted by MD Pallavi (who had hosted the latter
half of the first edition). The announcement was made by Balaraj,
Pallavi and Zee Kannada’s creative head Bala Suresh at
a press conference in Bangalore on Friday.
Miditech
had earlier produced the first edition that ran through 52
episodes over a six month period. The second edition, which
was for Kannada housewives, was produced by Mumbai’s
Maverick Productions and ran through 26 episodes spread over
3 months.
At
present, Zee Kannada has planned to run Li’l Champs
over 26 episodes and 13 weeks. The show is to be broadcast
for one hour between 9 pm and 10 pm every Saturday and Sunday
starting 29 December.
 Zee
Kannada had invited participants for Li’l Champs
by running a ticker tape on its channel, as well as sending
notices to schools across Karnataka. The channel received
600 valid registrations by way of IVRS. 300 children registered
directly and about 250 came in for spot registration for the
audition rounds.
Sixty
participants will now perform for the show during the theatre
rounds where this number will be culled to 18 – nine
each of boys and girls. During the final studio rounds, every
week, one boy and one girl will be eliminated until the final
round at which one boy and one girl will be announced as champs.
Kannada actor and singer Rajesh Krishnan who had hosted the
first part of the first season will judge the studio rounds,
along with a celebrity for each episode of the finals.
Zee
Kannada business head Anup Chandrasekhar told indiantelevision.com,
“We are in a process of finalising the anchor-sponsor
and other sponsors." He also added, "Through Li’l
Champs, we are looking at providing singers with the same,
if not more, opportunities and exposure that was given the
singers of season 1 and season 2 of Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa.”
For
the first season, Zee Kannada had tied up with Ashwini Audio.
The winner of season 1, Chinmay, has slowly started to establish
himself in the Kannada film industry and has sung over 40
tracks.
Inchara,
another participant of the first season, has been presented
with opportunities to sing in over three Kannada films. For
the second and the third editions, the channel is yet to tie
up with an audio company.
In
the case of Li’l Champs, Zee Kannada plans to
award the winners with a scholarship, which a company source
says is likely to be about Rs 300,000 – the same amount
that was awarded by cash in the case of the winner of the
housewives edition. The winner of the first edition walked
away with a Santro car that had been sponsored by Hyundai.
The Telugu edition of Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa, which is running
through its second season, has been produced by Vijayanti
Productions.
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