The eight-month long musical reality show of Indian Idol-Season 12 came to an end on Sunday night with a 12-hour long marathon show. As expected, Uttarakhand-based Pawandeep Rajan emerged as the winner of the show.
Pawandeep Rajan walked away with the trophy of Indian Idol 12 and a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh. Arunita Kanjilal and Sayli Kamble were announced as the first and second runners-up, respectively, followed by Mohd Danish, Nihal Tauro and Shanamukhapriya.
What came as a big disappointment for the Telugu audiences of Indian Idol show was the way Shanmukhapriya, a Visakhapatnam-based singer ended up in the last position among the six, who made it to the finals.
Though nobody expected Shanmukhapriya to bag the Indian Idol title, the Telugu fans hoped that she would at least be the first or second runner-up. She put up a commendable show in the programme and impressed both the audiences as well as judges.
But she finished last in the grand finale, which was a shock even to her parents, who were present at the show. So, what went wrong for Shanmukhapriya?
Many may blame the audiences who did not vote for her in a big way and therefore, she lost in the race. This is, to some extent, may be true, because the Telugu audiences do not view the Hindi channels much.
Especially those in the coastal Andhra are not very comfortable with the Hindi language, as is evident from the viewership of the Hindi channels in this part of the country.
Had she been from Hyderabad or other parts of Telangana, she would have definitely got the good voting from the audiences.
There is also another reason for Shanmukhapriya not being able to impress the audiences in other parts of the country. She is not as versatile as the other top contenders like Pawandeep or Arunita, who had sung all types of songs – right from folk to melodies to fast beat to pop.
On the other hand, Shanmukhapriya was perfect in singing husky songs and “yodelling” type of songs, besides fast-paced and western-beat songs. But when it came to melodies or folk songs, she was not as impressive as others among the finalists. This also made a lot of difference.
But Indian Idol is not be-all and end-all for Shanmukhapriya. She has enormous talent and she will definitely get bright chances in the coming days. After all, she has already bagged the offer from Vijay Devarakonda!
