The shooting floor at Prasad Labs is a beehive of activity. Even as the technicians get the lighting and sets ready, the excitement on the floor is palpable. Srisha is practising the intricate ‘Ilankaathu Veesuthe’ ( Pithamagan ) under the watchful eye of voice expert Ananth Vaidhyanathan; Spoorthi is prancing around humming a sangathi as she hops from one chair to another; and ‘rockstar’ Bharath is posing with a saxophone for a photoshoot on the side.
This evening, they will hope to set the stage on fire even as they battle it out with three other contestants (Haripriya, Anushya and Jessica) at the finals of the ongoing Vijay TV’s Airtel Super Singer Junior at Thangavelu Engineering College, an event that’ll be followed by more than 10,000 people live at the venue and many more on TV.
At the studios of this popular reality show and talent hunt, lives are made. For, one of the six finalists — all still in school — will ‘take home’ a residential apartment while the others will walk away with big-ticket prizes that even their parents would’ve just dreamt of.
Take Bharath, who is the only boy in the line-up, for instance. Hailing from a small town (Kollam) in Kerala, he came to the studios “in search of fame” after watching the promos on TV. And, his rendition of fast-paced songs in the various musical rounds this season have made him popular with the TV-viewer who regularly tunes in to this programme post-dinner. “The highlight of my journey so far was singing in front of Dhanush sir,” exclaims Bharath, smiling all the time, “Growing up, I never thought I would even see him in person someday.”
He’s living a dream today and so are the others. Little Spoorthi from Bangalore didn’t even know Tamil till last year and came for the show because “Pragathi akka was a very good singer” (Pragathi was part of a previous season of the same show and is now singing in films.) “When I first sang, I didn’t even understand what the judges were commenting about my singing skills,” she states, “But then, I slowly picked up.”
That’s how it works with the juniors — they pick up the language, some friends and voice skills on the set. Haripriya is in Class IX now, but has been trying to participate in the show for the past few seasons. And today, post several tough rounds, she’s excited to have made it to the finals. “I had no formal training in singing; my appa taught me. It was here on the sets — listening to Ananth sir and all the judges — that I learnt how to get it right.” Anushya and Srisha have both been part of the Super Singer journey for the past few months and they say that, other than bonding over music, it has given them friends for life. “We share a lot of lighter moments once we’re off camera; we have pizza together and we sometimes even get noticed on the road,” they gush. “Getting such recognition at this age is a blessing.” Srisha made it to the finals almost at the last minute — after the customary top five was announced. “I knew my name wasn’t in the top five, yet something told me that I would be in the finals. Most of the legendary singers who’d come for the initial rounds had described my voice to be as sweet as ‘honey’; I knew that they wouldn’t have said that without really feeling so.” And, as Providence would have it, she landed up as the sixth finalist, a first in this reality show.
The talent hunt does not attract aspiring singers just from India; it has many fans abroad as well. That’s one of the reasons Jessica, who hails from Canada, decided to participate.
“Most of my family members and friends thought they’d miss me and didn’t want me to come to Chennai… but today, seeing all the appreciation I get for my singing, they’re all super happy,” she says. “As finalists, we all know that this is a great opportunity for us in our road to becoming playback singers.” The doors of the recording studios will open for them in the future. For now, the doors of a future home await one of them.
