Indian Idol (Hindi TV series)

Indian Idol is an Indian Hindi-language singing reality competition on Sony TV. It is an Indian version of the British show Pop Idol and is part of the Indian Idol series. It has aired on Sony Entertainment Television since 2004. Originally produced by Miditech Studios and its iconic producer-brothers, Niret Alva, Nikhil J Alva and Nivedith Alva, the series was an instant success. The brothers produced the first 5 seasons of the series and were instrumental in laying the foundation for its future success.
Indian Idol's production and taping take place in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It broadcasts on Saturdays and Sundays and digitally airs on SonyLIV application.
Anu Malik
Farah Khan
Sonu Nigam
Aman Verma
Mini Mathur
Top 12 Contestants
Anu Malik
Farah Khan
Sonu Nigam
Mini Mathur Aman Verma
Top 12 Contestants
Javed Akhtar
Anu Malik
Alisha Chinai
Udit Narayan
Hussain Kuwajerwala
Mini Mathur
Top 13 Contestants
The fourth season of Indian Idol was aired on Sony TV from 19 September 2008 to 1 March 2009. For the first time in Indian Idol history, there were two women among the top three finalists. Sourabhee Debbarma who hails from Agartala, Tripura won the competition and became the first female contestant to do so. By doing so, she also won a contract of Rs. 1 crore with Sony Entertainment Television and a TATA Winger. She released an album, Meherbaan, as per a contract with Sony. Kapil Thapa was runner-up while Torsha Sarkar finished third.
One of the contestants, Bhavya Pandit, received an offer to sing the song "Aaja Lehraate" for the film What's Your Raashee, alongside singer Gautam Mrinaal.
Javed Akhtar
Anu Malik
Sonali Bendre
Kailash Kher
Hussain Kuwajerwala
Meiyang Chang
Top 14 Contestants
Shreya Ghoshal
Sunidhi Chauhan
Salim Merchant
Hussain Kuwajerwala
Abhijeet Sawant
Top 13 Contestants
Note: Sreerama, Rakesh, and Bhoomi were the top 3. Sreeram was crowned the winner without announcing the 1st and 2nd runner-ups.
The sixth season aired on Sony TV from 1 June 2012 to 1 September 2012. The winner of the sixth season was Vipul Mehta.
Anu Malik
Sunidhi Chauhan
Salim Merchant
Asha Bhosle
Hussain Kuwajerwala
Mini Mathur
On 23 June 2012, the judges selected the top 16 contestants to perform in the Gala Rounds.
Contestants
Vishal Dadlani
Shreya Ghoshal
Shekhar Ravjiani
Karan Wahi
Mandira Bedi
Top 11 Contestants
Indian Idol Junior Season 2 started on 30 May 2015 and finished on 6 September 2015.
Salim Merchant
Sonakshi Sinha replaced Shalmali Kholgade
Vishal Dadlani
Hussain Kuwajerwala
Asha Negi
Top 13 Contestants
Anu Malik
Farah Khan
Sonu Nigam
Karan Wahi
Paritosh Tripathi
Top 14 Contestants
Javed Ali replaced Anu Malik
Neha Kakkar
Vishal Dadlani
Manish Paul
Top 14 Contestants
The 11th season started to air on 12 October 2019 on Sony TV. It was being hosted by singer Aditya Narayan. Neha Kakkar has returned as one of the judges on popular demand along with Vishal Dadlani and Anu Malik, who came back to the show as a judge after his suspension from the judging panel for Me Too allegations. He was then replaced by Himesh Reshammiya.
Himesh Reshammiya replaced Anu Malik
Neha Kakkar
Vishal Dadlani
Aditya Narayan
Top 16 contestants
The 12th season started on 28 November 2020 on Sony TV. The grand finale aired from 12 noon to 12 midnight on 15 August 2021. Pawandeep Rajan was declared the winner of the season and Arunita Kanjilal became the 1st Runner-up. This was the longest running season of Indian Idol.
Anu Malik
Sonu Kakkar
Himesh Reshammiya
Vishal Dadlani
Neha Kakkar
Although Vishal Dadlani, Neha Kakkar and Himesh Reshammiya were the original judges, when the shoot shifted out of Mumbai, then Vishal Dadlani, and Neha Kakkar couldn't join and makers replaced them by Anu Malik and Sonu Kakkar.
Aditya Narayan
Bharti Singh
Haarsh Limbachiyaa
Rithvik Dhanjani
Jay Bhanushali
Aditya Narayan was the original host but Bharti & Harsh, Rithvik and Jay replaced him when he came out to be COVID +ve. Bharti and Harsh replaced him on February 28.
The judges have decided to do a power play for 9 weeks and let the audience decide who they want to see in the Top 8. Elimination will happen after the 9 weeks of power play. This season was extended because the contestants have given so much love and entertainment to the audience in the COVID pandemic. The 9 weeks of power play were completed and Anjali Gaikwad got eliminated.
Top 15 contestants
The Ground Auditions started in July 2022. The show started on 10 September 2022. The finale was held on April 2, 2023, with Rishi Singh being declared as the winner of the season along with Deboshmita Roy as the 1st runner up.
Himesh Reshammiya
Vishal Dadlani
Aditya Narayan
Neha Kakkar
Haarsh Limbachiyaa
Bharti Singh
Top 15 Contestants
The judges have decided to do a power play for 4 weeks and let the audience decide who they want to see in the Top 7. Elimination will happen after the 4 weeks of power play. The 4 weeks of power play were completed and Navdeep Wadali got eliminated on February 26, 2023. The last contestant who got eliminated from the show was Senjuti Das on March 25, 2023, leaving the top 6 finalists to compete for the Indian Idol trophy.
The fourteenth season premiered on 7 October 2023, with the theme Ek Awaz Lakhon Ehsaas (lit. One Voice, Million Emotion). The season was hosted by Hussain Kuwajerwala. Aditya Narayan hosted the show for a week, in the absence of Kuwajerwala. Kumar Sanu, Shreya Ghoshal and Vishal Dadlani were the judges. On 3 March 2024, the season concluded, with Vaibhav Gupta crowned as the winner, with Subhadeep Das Choudhary finishing as the runner-up.
The fifteenth season premiered in October 2024, with the theme Jo Gayega, Wo Nazar Aayega (lit. --). The season was hosted by Aditya Narayan. Badshah, Shreya Ghoshal, and Vishal Dadlani are the judges. The grand finale aired on 5th and 6th April 2025, with Manasi Ghosh crowned as the winner, with Subhajit Chakraborty finishing as the runner-up.
Shreya Ghoshal who judged this show's seasons 7,14 and 15, in her interview with Baibhav Dutta of The Economic Times YouTube channel revealed that this show's makers asked her and other judges to praise every contestant. According to Dutta since 2022, judges of Indian Idol do not give critical comments or point out flaws in singing after a contestant performed, and they praise everyone, and the audience also gets confused. In 2021, Amit Kumar also expressed the same thing after he appeared as a guest judge, he said that the makers of Indian Idol specifically told him while filming that you have to praise every contestant and not criticize. In 2018, a participant Nishant Kaushik revealed on Twitter the suffering and ill-treatment of the people who come for the auditions of this show. He expressed his experience with his Indian Idol audition. He elaborated that, he participated in the 2012 Indian Idol audition, people of this show do not give any service to the participants, and contestants kept standing with no access to food, drinking water, or toilet. Former host of Indian idol Mini Mathur in response to this tweet thread wrote these kinds of things happened in Indian reality shows, that is why she quit doing work in them. In 2021 many fans alleged the show for showing scripted stories to gain TRP. In the season fans expressed on social media that the love angle of Pawandeep Rajan and Arunita Kanjilal was fake, and makers are deliberately trying to show the love angle. The show frequently alleged of showing fake emotional, drama and sob stories of the contestants. Amid the 12th season viewers slammed makers for altering the performance of Pawandeep Rajan.