Pritam

What sets Chhote Ustaad (STAR Plus) apart?

Chhote Ustaad is perhaps one of the few reality shows where equal weightage is given to audience votes as well as the judges’ opinions. That factor alone was the clincher for me in my decision to take up the show. I did not want to be one of those judges who is made to eat humble pie when the audience decides its own winner on the basis of state or region. As we have seen in the past, most of the winners of previous reality talent shows haven’t really been the deserving ones. I don’t mean to take credit away from anyone, but atleast with Chhote Ustaad we are striving to make sure that only the best in terms of talent make it to the final rounds.

Who would you put your money on as the final winner?

Aishwarya (Majmudar) and Anwesha (Datta Gupta) are probably the best finds of Chhote Ustaad. While Aishwarya has a god-gifted voice which is suitable for singing almost any kind of song, Anwesha is technically perfect. Quite honestly, there is very little to choose between the two.

You have also given both Aishwarya and Anwesha a break in your film Golmaal Returns…

Aishwarya and Anwesha will be singing for Kareena (Kapoor) and Amrita (Arora) in Golmaal Returns. I have also used Monali Thakur of Indian Idol 2. She is Katrina Kaif’s voice in the film Race and has sung the Zara zara touch me number. Even Antara Mitra of Indian Idol has sung for me (in Jab We Met).

Apart from Sunidhi and Shreya, reality show winners haven’t really made it big...

I think we need to give all of them some time. Even Sunidhi and Shreya took time to get their first proper break in playback singing. For that matter, even a singer like Naresh Iyer was ousted from the preliminary rounds of Channel [V]’s Super Singer, but is one of the young talents that the industry has today. Perseverance and patience pay off in this business.

Will we get to see more of Pritam on the small screen?

I have always been interested in doing a show which centres around the hunt for a talented Hindi band. We have had talented bands in the past like Silk Route and Euphoria but they are practically nowhere today. I see a lot of good music happening around, but we need bands to get into Bollywood today. I have started it with band Metro and I want Calcutta bands like Fossils, Chandrabindoo and Lakkhichhara to make it big on the national scene.

Priyanka Roy