Indian Idol is one of the biggest and most watched reality shows in India! Indian Idol started its journey in the year 2004 with its producers Ashok and Julian Gingale, Barry Stone, Cathy Dennis and its jazzy-melodic theme music.
Since 2004, it has proved to be a platform for all the budding artists who enter the competition and emerge as one of the biggest singers and composers of India. With 12 seasons, this show is a huge success! Indian Idol has had some talented contestants and even more talented winners.
Indian Idol Season 1 Winner – Abhijeet Sawant
- Runners-up : Amit Sana, Rahul Vaidya
- Prize Money : 50 lakh + One album song contract with T- Series
- Judges : Anu Malik, Farah Khan, Sonu Nigam
- Hosts : Aman Verma, Mini Mathur
Abhijeet Sawant was the first Indian Idol winner. He participated in season one which was held in the year 2004-2005 and was dynamically hosted by Aman Verma and Mini Mathur.
Indian Idol Season 2 Winner – Sandeep Acharya
After getting more popularity in the season, It has started with the new season ‘Indian Idol Season2’. Which aired on Sony TV from 21 November 2005. Sandeep Acharya is the winner of the season to giving tuff competition N. C. Karunya.
- Runners-up : N. C. Karunya, Anuj Sharma
- Prize Money : ₹1 crore + Maruti Baleno car
- Judges : Anu Malik, Farah Khan, Sonu Nigam
- Hosts : Mini Mathur
Indian Idol Season 3 Winner – Prashant Tamang
Tamang was born on 4 January 1983 in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. Tamang married Geeta Thapa in 2011 and they have children. He was the title winner of the third season in 2007 with the most votes from the fans.+
Interestingly, the mayor of the Nepal invested Rs.10,000 and Nepalese in abroad sent money to spend it on sending SMS votes. He started to work in the Nepali films (six films) and it did not work out at the box office very well. He has launched four albums between 2007 to 2016.
- Runners-up : Amit Paul, Emon Chatterjee
- Prize Money : Rs 1 crore and Maruti Suzuki SX4
- Judges : Anu Malik, Javed Akhtar, Udit Narayan, and Alisha Chinai
- Hosts : Hussain Kuwajerwala, Mini Mathur
Indian Idol Season 4 Winner – Sourabhee Debbarma
- Runners-up : Kapil Thapa, Torsha Sarkar
- Prize Money : ₹ 1 crore + TATA Winger
- Judges : Anu Malik, Javed Akhtar
- Hosts : Hussain Kuwajerwala and Meiyang Chang
For season 4, held in the year 2008–09, Saurabhi Debbarma was the winner and Mini Mathur was replaced by Meiyang Chang, who hosted the show along with Hussain Kuwajerwala.
Indian Idol Season 5 Winner – Sreerama Chandra Mynampati
Sreerama Chandra Maynampati was the Indian Idol winner for season 5, which was held in the year 2010 and the show was once again hosted by the duo- Hussain Kuwajerwala, Meiyang Chang.
- Runners-up : Bhoomi Trivedi, Rakesh Maini
- Prize Money : Rs 50 lakh, a TATA Winger, and a music album contract
- Judges : Anu Malik, Sunidhi Chauhan, Salim Merchant
- Hosts : Abhijeet Sawant, Hussain Kuwajerwala
Indian Idol Season 6 Winner – Vipul Mehta
Vipul Mehta is an Indian Idol 6 winner who became an influential singer. Having no background in singing, she started learning classical singing at the age of 8. Before Indian Idol, she was the runner-up of another reality show called Amul Star Voice of India 2. He later worked with other Indian Idol 6 contestants album Fabulous Four.
- Runners-up : Amit Kumar, Amitabh Narayan
- Prize Money : Rs 50 lakh, a Nissan Micra car, a Suzuki Hayate bike, and Rs 3 lakh from Max Life Insurance
- Judges : Anu Malik, Sunidhi Chauhan, and Salim Merchant
- Hosts : Mini Mathur and Hussain Kuwajerwala
Indian Idol Season 7 Winner – Anjana Padmanabhan
Indian Idol Junior Season 1 was launched on 1 June 2013 on Sony Entertainment Television, and is a part of Indian Idol, hence considered as the 7th season of the show. Shreya Ghoshal was judged by popular Bollywood singing duo, Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani, popularly known as Vishal-Shekhar.
- Runners-up : Debanjana Karmakar, Anmol Jaswal
- Prize Money : 25 lakh + a Nissan Micra Car
- Judges : Vishal Dadlani, Shreya Ghoshal, Shekhar Ravjiani
- Hosts : Karan Wahi, Mandira Bedi
Indian Idol Season 8 Winner – Ananya Sritam Nanda
Indian Idol Junior Season 2 aired on 30 May 2015 and was won by Ananya Nanda from Bhubaneswar, Odisha, while Nahid Afrin from Assam was declared as the runner-up.
Ananya was accompanied by Prasanna Kumar Nanda, who is the director of a government industrial department, and Prashanti Mishra, who is a homemaker. She completed her intermediate from KIIT International University, where she was a school topper. She now lives in Mumbai.
- Runners-up : Nithyashree Venkataramanan, Nahid Afrin
- Prize Money : ₹10 lakh
- Judges : Salim Merchant, Sonakshi Sinha, Vishal Dadlani
- Hosts : Hussain Kuwajerwala, Asha Negi
Indian Idol Season 9 Winner – LV Revanth
LV Revanth won Indian Idol season 9. Now he has more than 200 songs in Hindi, Kannada and Telugu. He is particularly popular in the Telugu film industry. He is also the winner of many other competitions like South Ke Superstar, Spicy Singer and Rock Star.
- Runners-up : Khuda Baksh, PVNS Rohit
- Prize Money : ₹25 lakh + Mahindra KUV100
- Judges : Anu Malik, Neha Kakkar, Vishal Dadlani
- Hosts : Karan Wahi, Paritosh Tripathi
Indian Idol Season 10 Winner – Salman Ali
- Runners-up : Ankush Bhardwaj, Neelanjana Ray
- Prize Money : ₹25 lakh + Datsun Go car
- Judges : Javed Ali, Neha Kakkar, Vishal Dadlani
- Hosts : Manish Paul
Singer Salman Ali has won the 10th season of the hit reality show Sony Indian Idol. Hailing from Mewat, Haryana, Salman Ali impressed the audience with his stellar performances throughout the season. She was appreciated not only by the judges – Anu Malik, Neha Kakkar, Vishal Dadlani and Javed Ali – but also by the records of the show. He not only won the much-awaited Indian Idol trophy look but also won a cash prize of Rs. 25 lakhs and a Datsun Go car.
Indian Idol Season 11 Winner – Sunny Hindustani
Sunny Hindustani from Bathinda, Punjab was the winner of the 11th season of Indian Idol in 2019, securing the highest number of audience votes to win the coveted title.
- Runners-up : Rohit Shyam Raut, Ankona Mukherjee
- Prize Money : ₹25 lakh + Tata Altroz car
- Judges : Neha Kakkar, Vishal Dadlani, Anu Malik
- Hosts : Aditya Narayan
Indian Idol Season 12 Winner – Pawandeep Rajan
- Runners-up : Arunita Kanjilal and Sayli Kamble
- Prize Money : ₹25 lakh + Maruti Suzuki Swift car
- Judges : Neha Kakkar, Vishal Dadlani, Anu Malik, and Himesh Reshammiya
- Hosts : Aditya Narayan
The singing reality show Indian Idol 12 premiered in November 2020 with 15 contestants. Pawandeep Rajan, 26, from Uttarakhand ended it all by winning the show. The top 6 contestants in the finale of the show were Sayali Kamble, Arunita Kanjilal, Nihal Tauro, Pawandeep Rajan, Danish Mohammed and Shanmukha Priya.
Indian Idol Season 13 Winner – Rishi Singh
Finally, the winner is here! Sony Television’s singing reality show Indian Idol 13 which has been running for almost six months finally announced its winner and he is none other than Rishi Singh. Rishi, who hails from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, lifted the trophy, Rs 25 lakh in cash and a new car – Brezza. He was in the final battle with other top 5 contestants Bidipta Chakraborty, Sonakshi Kar and Debosmita Roy, Chirag Kotwal and Shivam Singh.
Debosmita Roy and Chirag Kotwal, the first and second runners-up respectively, received a trophy and a check of ₹5 lakh each. Third and fourth runners-up Bidipta Chakraborty and Shivam Singh were given a check of Rs.3 lakh each.
- Runners-up : Debosmita Roy and Chirag Kotwal
- Prize Money : ₹25 lakh + Maruti Suzuki’s Brezza’s ZXI Car
- Judges : Neha Kakkar, Vishal Dadlani, and Himesh Reshammiya
- Hosts : Aditya Narayan
