It was a sweet surprise for contestants Shreyan Bhattacharya and Anjali Gaikwad when both of them were announced as the winners of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs 2017 late Sunday. This is the first time that a reality show has declared two winners during a single season in India.
The 11-year-old Anjali hails from Maharashtra and her renditions of Deewani Mastani, Main Kolhapur Se Aayi Hu and Jhalla Wallah during the finale round won over the judges. Anjali entered the show recently as a ‘challenger’.
The other winner of the show, Shreyan, has had a longer journey with Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs. Originally from Midnapur (West Bengal), 12-year-old Shreyan crooned Hawayein, Zalima and Sooraj Dooba in the finale episode. Shreyan is a fan of Javed Ali and has told Indian Express that his best moment on the show was when Ali told him he sang the latter’s song even better than him!
Talking about his victory, Shreyan Bhattacharya said, “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs has been a great learning experience for me. The mentors and grand jury members have been very supportive and encouraging of our talent throughout our journey, and that has greatly added to my abilities as a performer. Our training and practice sessions have helped us in our overall performances. Have developed some truly special bonds with a few of the jury members as well that I will cherish for life . I am very excited to have won the show.”
Anjali Gaikwad said, “Winning Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs has been a dream come true. I thank my stars that I got selected as one of the challengers in the second round of auditions and since then the journey has been incredible. I have learnt so much from all the jury and all the super talented fellow contestants. The judges and mentors - Neha Ma’am, Javed Sir and Himesh Sir have helped us hone our skills with their positive and at times, constructive feedback. The experience has helped me grow as a person and I am thankful to Zee TV and the prestigious Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs platform for this opportunity.”
Hosted by Aditya Narayan, the show has Neha Kakkar, Himesh Reshammiya and Javed Ali on the judges panel, along with a 30 member jury. The grand finale was held in Jaipur and also saw performances by comedians and TV stars Ravi Dubey, Bharti Singh, Parag Tyagi and Kapil Sharma.
The finalists of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs were Dhroon Tickoo, Anjali, Shanmukhapriya, Vaishnav Girish and Sonakshi Kar.
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