Idol versus Idol!

Sandeep Acharya is dismayed at Abhijeet Sawant’s selection for ‘Asian Idol’

The news that the first Indian Idol winner Abhijeet Sawant will represent India in the reality show ‘Asian Idol’ has not gone down well with the second season’s winner Sandeep Acharya.

According to Sandeep, the Sony channel was to hold a competition between the winners of the three seasons of ‘Indian Idol’ to choose the contestant for ‘Asian Idol’. Now Sandeep is aghast at being kept in the dark.

“Till 15 days ago, the programme was set. However, no competition took place and I wasn’t even informed about any changes. I learnt in the newspapers that Abhijeet has been chosen to represent India in the reality contest. On what basis has this decision been taken? After all, I am no less than Abhijeet in any way. My intention of coming out in the open is that people should not feel that I lost the competition.”

Albert Almeida, programming head, Sony clarifies, “The channel is free to nominate its candidate for ‘Asian Idol’. We were toying with the idea of getting the three winners to compete against each other, but getting them together was proving difficult. So we decided to send the first ‘Indian Idol’ to ‘Asian Idol’.”