by Anju D'Souza for Daijiworld News Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jan 26: It’s a world of copycats. From the American Idol to the Indian Idol and now it's Mangalore Idol.

However, this copycat phenomenon is turning the world round for the blessed few. On Wednesday, the same happened to Sai Srinivas and Shama.

Sai Srinivas and Shama

In a glittery show organized at the amphitheatre of School of Social work Roshni Nilaya by Sholites Mangalore, Sai Srinivas won the Mangalore Idol title while Shama won the Mangalore Junior Idol title in a keenly-fought contest.

The Mangalore Idol and Junior Idol contest, which was launched in the district by Sholites, had a total of 720 candidates for the three prelims in the senior category and 260 for the 2 prelims in the junior category. The acid test shrunk the number to 38 in each category and 14 selected of both the category were given an opportunity to perform in a recording studio.

In the fray were the top six finalists - Jagdish, Nitin, Divya, Jayanthi Bhat, U V Mallya and Sai Srinivas. While Divya, Jayanthi and Sai Srinivas made it to the top three, it was Sai Srinivas who stole the show.

The six finalists for the junior idol title included Chaitra Somayaji, Maithili, Mohammed Ansar, Shama, Anisha Rao and Manjushree. The three top finalists were Anisha Rao, Shama and Maithili of whom Shama made it to the title.

Sai Srinivas won a free trip (to and fro) from Mangalore to Mumbai from Jet Airways and loads of gift hampers. A resident of Attavar, Sai finished his MBBS from Fr Muller Medical College, and is an aspirant for MD.

It is the same Shama, who missed by just half a point to Amabel Moras, the Rani Kogull title at the Soad contest at Kalangan that made it to the junior idol title. A student of Canara Urva, 15-year-old Shama hails from Mannagudda.

Language is no barrier to her as she was neck-and-neck with Amabel, in spite of the fact that her mother tongue was not Konkani. There were many who felt sad for her having missed the Soad title by half a point, but all were praise for the way she took it with cool and magnanimity. The charming teen Shama surpassed over 300 contestants to the title Junior Idol on Wednesday.

Speaking to Daijiworld, Shama said her parents have been encouraging her in every way to develop her talents. She has trained herself in singing under the guidance of veteran vocalist Vasanti R Nayak of Mangalore.

Sholites sources revealed that her performance, which gave her the winning edge, was the Kannada oldie of Kannada Matinee Idol Rajkumar 'Omme Ninnanu Kann Thumba Kanuvase Nannalli'.

That’s not all, the lucky six finalists of the Mangalore idol will also be featuring in an album with songs composed by Rajgopal and music by Vinod Suvarna. The fusion music album with Hindi and Kannada, classical and western is expected to hit the stalls by March end.

Much more is in store for these chosen few, whose voices have been sent to the states most successful music directors. Good news is that music director Gurukiran has assured to pick one of them to sing for his next film.