Fame Gurukul: The curtain goes up

It's a show which Sony Entertainment hopes will continue from where Indian Idol ended. And it has been under wraps

The jury: Ila Arun, Shankar Mahadevan, KK with Manav Gohil

for quite a while. Today, the happening Hindi entertainment channel gave a peep-show to the press of what audiences can expect from its much awaited song and dance, reality cum soap based show, Fame Gurukul.

Seen at the press event were the fourteen short listed contestants, head mistress Ila Arun, musicians and jury members KK and Shankar Mahadevan. Manav Gohil stole the limelight with co-host Mandira Bedi nowhere in sight.

"I'd be a strict administrator, a teacher and a mother at the same time," said veteran musician and folk singer Ila Arun on her role as headmistress for the school that will train and provide a platform to its contestants and winners. "It takes a lot more than talent to be successful in any industry today. I'd like to teach them how to save themselves from being exploited as they go on to achieve their goals. Officially, it's not my job to groom them, but I will wherever required," she added.

Catching the show's jury members, KK and Shankar off guard, we asked what made them want to be part of the show.

"I've never really taught or groomed a musician. I consider this a good opportunity to do so. I'm really looking forward to it," said Shankar Mahadevan enthusiastically.

KK made his point clear saying "I'm going to choose the pair that I think deserves to win and help them make their journey."

On further probing we got them to tell us the kind of critics they would want to be. "Nothing like the Jury of Indian Idol. I'd

The contestants with the jury

like to make the contestants feel as comfortable as possible," replied KK.

Shankar on the other hand said he'd like to be strict wherever required and otherwise he'd be easy going.

Host Manav Gohil seemed rather animated about his being selected as show host. "I kept praying but never imagined I'd be asked to do it."

On being asked where he thought this show would take his career. "Up. Higher and higher!" he quipped sounding extremely buoyant.

Tensions seem to be building as the contestants prepare for the show to go on air, where in the first week itself two participants will be eliminated. The remaining twelve will go on to live at the specially designed Gurukul Academy to be trained and ejected one by one, if they don't prove up to the mark. The agony, the ecstasy, the joy, the sadness, the anger, the calm, jealousy, insecurity - emotions of every hue and colour will all be captured and put on display as the show rolls on.

The stress could already be seen on the faces of the contestants at the press conference today. Unconfirmed sources indicate that the first of the brawls has already taken place with several of the contestants ganging up against one from the group.

The lucky 14 who made it include:

* Delhi-based Mona Bhatt ( Lata Mangeshkar diehard devotee) and Deepak Singh Meher(a songwriter and the joker in the pack)

* Ghaziabad-based Anubhav Suman (a BA in music who worships the late Mohammed Rafi)

* Mumbai-based Kirti Sagatia (he shares Abhijit Sawant's guru), Shamit Tyagi (a call-centre employee), Amiit Jadhav (Hindi film-song buff and a talented dancer), Rex D'Souza (he has performed with stand-up comic Johnny Lever), Arpita Mukherjee (her mother trained her in classical music and she croons like Asha Bhosle) and Chhavi Sodhani (a second year commerce graduate student from NM College)

* Kolkata-based Ruprekha Bannerjee (she has already sung the title song of a Bengali serial).

There seems to be no trouble here...

* Jaipur-based Deepshika Sharma (a Hindi film and western song buff)

* Jabalpur-based Gurpreet Kaur (a science post graduate and primary school teacher and like her name suggests she loves the Punjabi groove).

*Murshidabad-based Arijit Singh (a trained classical singer, he missed the Kolkatta auditions, but hoofed it all the way to Delhi and got selected).

* Srinagar-based Qazi Touqeer (he is the young cool dude of the lot, has attitude, and has performed on stage before, additionally he also gets his leg pulled a lot)

Just two of these 14 will go on to attain celebrity status - a la the Indian Idol participants - and of course be crowned as India's number one duet singers. The drama will unfold on 27 June at 8:30 pm. Both on screen and in India's living rooms.