Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007 is an Indian television singing competition that premiered on 4 May 2007 and ran until 13 October 2007. It is the 2nd instalment of the "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge" series and the 4th public voting competition in the "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" series. Chronologically, the show is preceded by Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs, however systematically it is followed by Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005. The show features two of the previous mentors, Himesh Reshammiya and Ismail Darbar, and two new mentors to the Challenge series, Bappi Lahiri and Vishal–Shekhar. Shaan did not return to host and was replaced by Aditya Narayan, son of playback singer, Udit Narayan.
The new logo is significantly different from the 2005 logo. It features headphones on a globe to represent itself as an international competition, instead of a previous logo consisting of a portrayal of a duet singing.
On 13 October at the Grand Finale, the show broke voting records with a collection of 10,61,44,354 (10.6 crores or 106 million) votes worldwide from 181 countries. In the final tally Aneek Dhar was declared the winner with 3,65,89,134 votes, Raja Hasan as the 1st runner-up with 3,52,40,963 votes and Amanat Ali as the 2nd runner-up with 3,43,14,257 votes.
Gharana selection
The Gharana (literally "House") is utilised similarly to a House system used in schools and colleges. The contestants of the gharanas have been chosen by the mentors themselves.
Two of the four previous gharanas that were featured on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 have been replaced – Aadesh Shrivastava's Jai Ho and Jatin–Lalit's Dum have now been replaced with "Josh" and "Hit Squad". The following list represents the initial 32 contestants who were chosen by the mentors and in the order they were introduced.
Apurva Shah from Mumbai, India Eliminated on Episode 23: 20 July
Saaberi Bhattacharya from Kolkata, West Bengal, India Eliminated on Episode 16: 23 June
Meghna Verma from Pune, Maharashtra, India – Eliminated on Episode 10: 2 June
Sarika Singh from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India – Eliminated on Episode 8: 26 May
Imran Aslam from Johannesburg, South Africa – Eliminated on Episode 8: 26 May
Sumana Ganguly from Toronto, Ontario, Canada – Eliminated on Episode 15: 22 June
Junaid Sheikh from Karachi, Pakistan - Eliminated on Episode 33: 24 August
Harpreet Deol from Ludhiana, Punjab, India – Eliminated on Episode 15: 22 June; voted back in the show during the "Bramhastra" week from the Josh Gharana. Finally Eliminated on Episode 35: 31 August
Raja Hasan from Bikaner, Rajasthan, India – Eliminated on Episode 16: 23 June; voted back in the show during the "Bramhastra" week. Mega finalist and 1st runner-up.
Eklavya
In addition, there was another Gharana called the Eklavya Gharana – it was a "reserved force" of eight singers. The exact purpose of this Gharana was not mentioned during the initial days of the show but soon it was determined that it basically prevented a Gharana from getting eliminated in the initial rounds. The contestants in this Eklavya Gharana performed on the 2nd episode of the show. Later on, each week two contestants from this Gharana were chosen to join a mentor's Gharana after that mentor has had any of his contestants eliminated the previous week.
Sumana Ganguly from Toronto, Ontario, Canada – transferred to Hit Squad (15 June)
Sumedha Karmahe from Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India – transferred to Josh Gharana (18 May)
Tushar Sinha from India – transferred to Rock Gharana (18 May)
Anita Bhatt from Lucknow, India – transferred to Rock Gharana (25 May)
Raja Hasan from Bikaner, Rajasthan, India – transferred to Hit-Squad Gharana (15 June)
Brijesh Shandilya from Basti, Uttar Pradesh, India – transferred to Yalgaar Gharana (25 May)
The only two contestants who never appeared in the competition after their performance on 5 May 2007 were:
Just as was done in previous Sa Re Ga Ma Pa shows, the idea of themes is featured to determine the contestants' versatility and ability to sing different genres.
Episode 01 – Week 1 (Fri, 4 May) – Introduction to Indian contestants in Gharanas
Episode 02 – Week 1 (Sat, 5 May) – Introduction to foreign contestants in Gharanas
Episode 46 – Week 23 (Sat, 6 October) – Round 1: White Feather Films' songs | Round 2: White Feather Films' emotional songs | Round 3: Song for one of the cast/crew of Dus Kahaniyan
"Mahagurus"
The Mahagurus appeared as judges in the semi-finals. They "commented" and decided who the top contestants were on the performance episodes and also decided who got eliminated on the "elimination day" during the initial rounds.
The "Bramhastra" round ran through Week 9. This round basically allowed the public to bring an eliminated contestant back into the competition. The gharana who received the Bramhastra got to choose two eliminated contestants for the finals (Agnipariksha). Vishal–Shekhar received this Bramhastra and they chose 6 contestants. The six contestants were:
Sarika Singh (Hit Squad)
Sunil Kumar (Josh)
Raja Hassan (Hit Squad)
Saaberi Bhattacharya (Hit Squad)
Harpreet Deol (Hit Squad)
Desh Gaurav Singh (Yalgaar)
Of the six contestants that were chosen by Vishal–Shekhar, the two contestants with most votes from the public and subsequently elected and brought back into the competition were:
Raja Hassan with 31% of the votes
Harpreet Deol with 20% of the votes
Top 14 finalists
The 14 finalists were announced at the end of the episode broadcast on 29 June 2007. That year, Aneek Dhar and Abhijeet Kosambi, winners of the regional spinoffs, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Bangla and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Marathi, got direct entry as finalists. Their direct entry into the finals caused some controversy that Ismail Darbar had the courage point out. However, after Himesh Reshammiya pleaded with Ismail, the issue dissolved. See Aneek-Abhijit controversy section for further details.
These are the names of the top fifteen finalists listed in order.
Week 23 (6 October) – Cast of Dus Kahaniyan (22 guests!)
Week 24 (13 October) (Finale) – Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan and Dia Mirza
Semi-finals and finals elimination charts
Contestants are in alphabetical order by last name, then by reverse chronological order of elimination.
Semi-finals
Legend
Female
Male
Top 14
Top 24
Top 32
Contestant did not perform during that week
Top contestant of the week
Stage:
Top 32
Top 24
Elimination Day:
12/5
19/5
26/5
2/6
9/6
16/6
22/6*
23/6*
Place
Contestant
Gharana
Result
Amanat Ali
Yalgaar
Btm 3
Poonam Yadav
Yalgaar
Sumedha Karmahe
Josh
Mussarat Abbas
Rock
Btm 3
Mauli Dave
Josh
Btm 3
Btm 3
Junaid Sheikh
Hit Squad
Btm 3
Btm 3
Joy Chakroborty
Rock
Btm 3
Nirupama Dey
Rock
Apurva Shah
Hit Squad
Btm 3
Rimi Dhar
Yalgaar
Btm 3
11–12
Raja Hassan
Hit Squad
Btm 3
Elim
Saaberi Bhattacharya
Hit Squad
Btm 3
Btm 3
13–14
Reecha Tripaathi
Josh
Btm 3
Btm 3
Sunil Kumar
Josh
Btm 3
Btm 3
15–16
Shresta Banerjee
Rock
Btm 3
Btm 3
Elim
Harpreet Deol
Josh
Btm 3
17–18
Sumana Ganguly
Hit Squad
Btm 3
Wasi Efandi
Yalgaar
Btm 3
Btm 3
19–20
Sikandar Ali
Josh
Elim
Jyoti Mishra
Yalgaar
Btm 3
21–22
Brijesh Shandilya
Yalgaar
Elim
Anita Bhatt
Rock
23–24
Tushar Sinha
Rock
Elim
Meghna Verma
Hit Squad
Btm 3
25–26
Sarika Singh
Hit Squad
Elim
Imran Aslam
Hit Squad
27–28
Desh Gaurav Singh
Yalgaar
Elim
Amrita Chatterjee
Rock
29–30
Yogendra Pathak
Rock
Elim
Koyal Chaterjee
Josh
31–32
Sayan Chaudhary
N/A
Binoy Mohanty
N/A
* During the week of 22 June, there was no separate performance/elimination episode as the week marked the beginning of the "Chakravyuh" phase. However, eight contestants were eliminated that week.
Finals (top 14)
Stage:
Agnipariksha (Top 14)
Elimination Day:
13/7
20/7
27/7
3/8
10/8
17/8†
24/8
31/8
7/9
14/9
21/9
28/9
5/10
13/10
Place
Country
Contestant
Gharana
Result
1
Aneek Dhar
Rock
Btm 2
Third
Winner
2
Raja Hassan
Hit Squad
Btm 2
Runner-up
3
Amanat Ali
Yalgaar
Btm 3
Btm 3
Second
2nd Runner-up
4
Poonam Yadav
Yalgaar
Btm 2
Elim
5
Sumedha Karmahe
Josh
Btm 3
Btm 2
Elim
6
Mussarat Abbas
Rock
Btm 3
Btm 3
Btm 2
Elim
7
Mauli Dave
Josh
Btm 2
Btm 3
Elim
8
Harpreet Deol
Hit Squad
Btm 3
Btm 2
Btm 2
Elim
9
Junaid Shaikh
Hit Squad
Btm 2
Btm 3
Elim
10
Joy Chakroborty
Rock
Elim
11
Abhjit Kosambi
Josh
Btm 2
Elim
12
Nirupama Dey
Rock
Elim
13
Apurva Shah
Hit Squad
Btm 3
Elim
14
Rimi Dhar
Yalgaar
Elim
In the Agnipariksha round, eliminations are based on public voting. Public voting is done through SMS, telephone or online. Each week, the contestant with lowest votes is eliminated.
Additionally, if all the contestants of a Gharana get eliminated, the Gharana also gets eliminated and subsequently the mentor(s) have to leave the show.
† During the week of 17 August, there was no eliminated contestant. That week's votes were added to the votes for the week of 24 August, and Junaid was then eliminated on the episode airing on 24 August.
Controversies
Aneek-Abhijit controversy
On 29 June, Aditya Narayan announced that Aneek Dhar and Abhijeet Kosambi, the winners of the regional spinoffs of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Bangla and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Marathi, would be getting direct entry as a Top 14 finalist. This was a pre decided qualification as it was a part of their respective prizes of winning the regional contests. The viewers of Marathi and Bangla had already seen and heard this announcement at live telecast on stage when Abhijeet Kosambi and Aneek Dhar had won the respective competitions, so in fact there was no need for any controversy in that case. Yet the mentors did not approve of this saying they should not be allowed to enter the competition in the middle and that they should have come from the beginning. Ismail Darbar tried to walk away from the show stalling the shooting of the program.
In the latter episodes, Abhijeet Kosambi was eliminated with the fewest votes. Aneek Dhar is the only contestant in Himesh Reshammiya's Rock 'gharana'. However, Aneek Dhar has been in the Bottom 2 once.
Aneek was also the top contestant thrice in the show and eventually ended up winning it all.
Independence Day controversy
The Independence Day special episode shot on 10 August (Week 15) ran into a controversy when the issue came up of the Pakistani contestants, Junaid, Mussarat and Amanat refused to sing Indian patriotic songs on 15 August special. All work on the sets was stalled for 6 hours. Finally, the Zee TV officials decided that the Pakistani contestants should sing Pakistani patriotic songs as a solution. However, the next week, the three Pakistani singers were the Bottom Three. It was then decided that no contestant would be eliminated that week and the week's votes would be added to the votes of the following week to decide the next elimination.
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Ek Shaam Taj Ke Naam
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Ek Shaam Taj Ke Naam was a one-day special episode organised by the SRGMP team as a tribute to the Taj Mahal and also dedicated to request and encourage people to vote for the Taj Mahal as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
As well as performances from the contestants of the season, the special episode also featured performances from contestants of previous SRGMP seasons such as Twinkle Bajpai, Sanchita Bhattacharya, Diwakar Sharma and Sameer Mohammed.