Koyal K. Ansingkar and Asawari Rutuparna: Atlanta Indian Idols
The winners: Junior Champion Koyal Ansingkar; 1st runner up Tanvi Raj; 2nd runner up Reet Tiwari; Acting Consul General R. Srinivasan; Senior Champion Asawari Joshi; 1st Runner up Rahul Nana; and 2nd runner up Santhanam Venkata Krishnan. (All Photos: Lavanya Palaparthy)
Koyal K. Ansingkar from Georgia and Asawari Rutuparna Joshi from Florida walked away with this year’s coveted Atlanta Indian Idol titles, presented by India American Cultural Association (IACA) at Georgia Tech’s Ferst Center on April 25, 2015. True to her name, Koyal’s sweet rendition of “Mere Dholna” won her the championship in Junior Category, and Asawari’s energetic performance of “Piya Tu” put her at the top of Senior Category. Chief guests of the night included Prince of Ghazals, Ranjit Rajwada; Lalit Dhingra, President, NIIT; R. Srinivasan, from the Consulate General of India, Atlanta; and Rekha Pallath, singer from Atlanta.
Rekha Pallath, singer from Atlanta, with guest, Ghajals King Ranjeet Rajwada.
Featuring singers from Georgia, California, Texas, Florida, and Maryland, the contest also showcased talents of contestants ranging in age from 12 years to 63. The championship round was the culmination of various auditions held earlier this year. There was never a dull moment at the four programs including dynamic dance performances from various dance institutes across Atlanta.
An extremely capable panel of judges including Sujatha Rayburn, Dr. Kakali Bandyopadhyay, Amitava Sen, and Dr. Lakshmi Rao (Sri Sangodkar was unable to attend) provided feedback and evaluated contestants based on various aspects of their performance such as tonal quality and accuracy, rhythm, diction, overall mastery of style, etc. Neeta Shenvi served as scorer/statistician with Sreedevi Dadithota as scorer. The show was emceed by Anand Srinivasan, who had served as a judge in earlier Idol contests, and Bindu Rao, a trained singer.
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| SMS poll winner Senior, Asawari Rutuparna Joshi (FL) | SMS poll winner Junior, Koyal K. Ansingkar (GA) with Acting Consul General R. Srinivasan. |
The Onsite SMS Polling provided by Text By Choice, along the lines of American Idol and Indian Idol, added to the excitement. The audience voted for their favorite singers by texting the first three letters of their names. The night belonged to Asawari and Koyal, as they walked away being the SMS Poll winners of the evening also.
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| Juniors 1st Runner up - Tanvi Raj (GA) | Juniors 2nd Runner up - Reet Tiwary (GA) |
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| Seniors 1st Runner up - Rahul Nana (FL) | Seniors 2nd Runner up - S.V. Krishnan (GA) |
Tanvi Raj (GA) was 1st Runner-up and Reet Tiwary (GA) landed 2nd Runner-up in Junior Category. Rahul S Nana (FL) was 1st Runner-up and Santhanam Venkata Krishnan (GA) 2nd Runner-up in the Senior Category. Santhanam reminded the audience to help Nepal in the wake of its recent earthquake. Sandeep Kowtha (GA) and Swathi Raman (MD) bagged Honorable Mentions. Senior Category had 16 and Junior featured 7 Finalists.
One of the Director's Choice Awardees, Junior Havishkrit Arya (GA).
This year a new Award called Director’s Choice was introduced to honor singers who did not make to the Finals. Director Dr. Raktim Sen chose Saras Jain (GA), Syed T. Husani (GA), and Geetika Aswal (TX) in Senior Category, and Havishkrit Arya (GA), Jyotsna Sharath Rao (GA), Neha Gregory (GA), and Shweta Ajit Bhat (GA) in Junior Category.
An Online Poll conducted earlier to crown the choice of the people, called the People Appreciation Award drew a whopping total of 720,463 votes! Reet Tiwary (GA) with 118,988 votes in Junior and Saumitra K. Sinha Ray (GA) with 300,100 votes in Senior categories won the People’s Appreciation awards.
The night began with the American national anthem sung by Anu Romesh, Atlanta Indian Idol Junior 2013, followed by India’s national anthem by Raka Das, Atlanta Indian Idol Senior 2014. Dance performances “Ganapathi Vandana” by Shiv’s Insititute of Dance, choreographed by Shiva Turlapthi, “Golden Classics, A dance medley to the tunes of 50-60s Bollywood superhit classics” choreographed by Uma Muralidhar, and “Procrastinate” by Kalaivani Dance and Music Academy choreographed by Siddharth Kelam added to the Bollywood flavor of the night.
Senior category participants in the 2015 Atlanta Indian Idol. (Photo: Lavanya Palaparthy)
Program Director Dr. Raktim Sen with Senior Winner Asawari Joshi, Junior Winner Koyal Ansingkar, and Coordinator Chand Akkineni. (Photo: Lavanya Palaparthy)
“The quality of the singers has gone up significantly this year. Participants’ ages ranged between 12 and 63. Next year, we may add a new age group 40+ in addition to 12-17 and 18-40,” stated Chand Akkineni, founder and coordinator of the event.
Website Bonus Feature
Photo Gallery: here.
Videos:
Atlanta Indian Idol 2015 Finalists SENIOR Category
by Jyothsna Hegde
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-lw3ONhU_RSiKXg4pBiXdZm_eCtzAQpr
Atlanta Indian Idol 2015 Finalists JUNIOR Category
by JyoHegde
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb02IAjMgDGN3Kh2tY6h8MqAfGOgemt1_
Atlanta Indian Idol 2015 (before the contest, not the results)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQzWwdhA7A4
Atlanta Indian Idol 2014 Winner (Senior): Raka Das (Final Round Performance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-JIAXN98dI
Atlanta Indian Idol 2014 Winner (Junior) Rahul Nana (Final Round Performance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCErzXKd5IU
Thanks:
Sponsors Dr. Paddy and Chandler Sharma, NIIT, EIS Reporting.
Patrons Softpath System, IT Job Café, Gallega Software Solutions, Pyramid Consulting, Urban Spice, and Kaushal Tripathi.
Organizing Team also included Vishwanth Ganti, Nizar Bhojani, Soham Patel, Nivedita Rath Garabadu, Rina Gupta, Neeta Shenvi, Satish Dharmarajan, Darshana Kaur, Sreekanth Murugan, Nida Shariff, Salil Gulve, Nautami Sheth, Mayura Janwadker, Shubhadeep Roy, Arijit Chowdhury, and Jyothsna Hegde.
Technology Partner TextByChoice.
Video for the event was provided by Soham Patel and photography by Lavanya Palaparthy.
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