Zee Marathi Saregamapa is degrading itself

I am not sure if it is just my sentiments and personal views or is it really a general public opinion and I will be depending on readers’ comments to understand the ground level situation. This week, Apoorva Gajjala was eliminated from the current season of Zee Marathi Saregamapa and it hurt. I should so much be used to this now that in this country quality is not appreciated above the clan, cast dynamics. However, I am not getting that thick skinned. During the Little Champs season, when I was not happy about Kartiki getting mileage over Arya & Prathamesh I got lot of bashing and some of it was full of hatred. I did not take it much to heart and thought this was going to happen.

This time around, I am seeing the same story repeating again. How are quality singers who are consistently delivering again and again and again are first thrown out when they come back with vengeance and take their singing to even higher level than other competitors, they still are thrown out in the name of SMS. I think I had written it earlier and would like to repeat again that this whole SMS business is absolutely unfair. The 50% part of Judges’ marks is always pretty close deal. E.g. this week Swarada Gokhale – who was never upto the mark got about 92% and the top scorer Abhilasha Chellam the top scorer got about 98%+ percent. Making the total band of about 6-8% max. This means, the judges are not really pulling down any candidate beyond this small margin. Whereas in the SMS part, since the percentage is always going to be of total SMS, if one candidate becomes popular, the other one obviously goes down and for every vote the difference multiplies. So this 50-50 proportion is fake. The judges can’t throw anyone out of the competition directly but they can certainly help someone remain in competition by virtue of their comments.

Coming to the point straight, I am of the opinion that Swarada Gokhale has been really undeserving candidate to reach this level in the current competition. From the beginning of the season, there was a real lack of quality singing in the competition in general but the final 4 of the competition are definitely not the best where the difference between them should really be judged on the basis of  votes. The little champs had taken this program to such a peak that the natural progress from there was not going to be progress really but a slide down. But with two successive failures to deliver quality (Both Ajacha Awaj & Punha Nave), I feel this is going to hit the producers big time. Pt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar has already shared his bad experiences in Maharashtra Times Diwali issue and this season is also proving that the whole show is completely manipulated and not really a “reality” show. There is no way for any general viewer to audit the SMS numbers and by the format of the show, Zee Marathi would be doing more harm to their credibility/ trustworthiness if there is any sort of manipulation going on behind the scene.

We need Devaki Pandit back in this show for her ability to give much critical comments and not being so goody goody to the contestants. I am aware that such things have happened in the past and I had written about partiality of judges in earlier seasons as well. But then, if we are better today than tomorrow, or yesterday was better than today, we need to do something about this. BTW, due to unfairness of the SMS system, I have stopped voting and to some extent I am responsible and party to the unfairness but just like Indian democracy, I feel my vote would not make the difference that I want to see.

14 thoughts on “Zee Marathi Saregamapa is degrading itself”

  1. Completely agree. We need Devki Pandit back. The current set of judges give no critique of the performance at all, but instead only keep praising every contestant. There is absolutely no technical analysis of the performance.

    Earlier, I used to look forward to the judges comments after each performance, because it was a learning experience for us; now, I consider the judges comments a complete waste of time because they have nothing to offer the viewers.

  2. Agreed. Recall Devaki Pandit as the Third Umpire or as spokesperson for the judges who should be rotated, for the welfare and credibility of Zee-Marathi’s srgmp.

  3. I have been watching SaReGaMaPa on the Internet for the past 3 months. Abhilasha Chellam has consistently outperformed Urmila Dhangar in each episode yet due to “Lokmat” (which obviously is biased since Abhilasha is not a true Marathi speaking Maharastrian) Urmila waa made महागायिका !!

  4. HI ,

    I completely agree on this . excellent article……..

    Saregamapa ‘s final results are already decided.
    This is the truth… In little champs episode I got to know in the morning itself that kartiki has won the competition…. whn the live show is about to start in the evening… that means sms, judges marks are TOTALLY FAKE., also i have heard that saregamapa team has asked Prathmesh’s dad for an amount of 50000/- rs saying that if u give this amount to us we will make sure that prathmeash will remain in competitin thill the end ( Not a winner ) .. but as his father has a business of VADA PAV, they were not in position to afford it, they denied this offer.

    Even in this current episode also Caste has won as against voice quality. …. what a pathetic voice quality Urmila has ………. still just because she doesnt come in open caste she has won….. Same has happened with Kartiki, Abhijeet kosambi, and vaishali Made ( of course vaishali could be an exception) .. but in this current episode Abhilasha and Rahul are on much much higher side than that urmila……….

    Now i seriously feel that devki has left the show just bcoz of this malpractices only… i guess devki pandit was been forced by saregamapa, to give only gooody goooody comments.

    this is quite irritating……. saregamapa is playing with the emotions of people…

    Shitttttttttttttt …… i seriously feel that we should ban this show….

    One request to all …. can u pls mail me the article of Hrudayanath mangeshar in diwali issue. I am desperately searching for that.

    Pls mail me on [email protected]

  5. I don’t completely agree with what has been said above, and it seems the person is biased.
    But I agree to the fact that this session was managed, expecially looking at the result.
    I don’t want to point fingers at anyone as I don’t think I am eligible to comment over and above the judges who are supposed to me more qualified than I am.
    As audiance though, I feel Abhilasha should have won.

  6. I have been watching SaReGaMaPa on the Internet for the last so many years and in this season Abhilasha Chellam has consistently outperformed Urmila Dhangar in each episode yet due to “Lokmat” (which obviously is biased since Abhilasha is not a true Marathi speaking Maharastrian) Urmila waa made महागायिका !!

    In addition in the last little champ episode, I feel Shalmali & Shamika were really superior and expected to be in the last three.

    For this program We need Devki Pandit back or Recall Devaki Pandit as the Third Umpire.

  7. Reply to all comments above: I personally believe, senior singers like Devaki Pandit, Pt. Hridayanath Mangeshkar, Asha Khadilkar, and composers like Milind Joshi, Kaushal Inamdaar, Milind Ingale have washed of hands from being resident judges at Saregamapa because of these heavy malpractices that have been commented about in the above posts… I have spoken to 2 of the judges(I wont mention the names), and who very clearly told me, it is very easy to guess the winner in the beginning itself.. ZeeMarathi is totally not looking at the quality, but just at the caste. Barring Vaishali Made, no result in Saregamapa was satisfactory…

  8. I agree to some extent with the above comments. Apurva performed exceptionally well but was eliminated due to SMS. I think SMS was manipulated in favour of Swarada initially (perhaps some of her buddies had some automated system to generate SMS). I noticed that later on SMS dropped suddenly for Swarada when someone in SRGMP noticed the manipulation. I also think, Shruti Vishwakarama deserved better. Should have been in the last 10 for sure (Swarada should not have been in there). And I think Abhlilasha was the best although, Apurva and Rahul were close and it is a toss up. However Urmila should not have been the winner. My 2 paisa worth.

  9. As expected “Puneri pandits cant talk better than this.”
    It is very clear that once it is decided that marks are split 50-50 between examiner’s ratings and SMS received and you have observed that marks given by examiners are very close then it is SMS nos. only which will decide the winner. And you are only few in nos. with negative thinking. There is a big crowd over there which is making SMS and deciding the winner.
    Again, remember that once a format is decided there is no point on criticizing on that.
    If you don’t like it don’t see it.

  10. VERY NICE ARTICLE GIVING PICTURE OF ALL TRUE FACTS ABOUT SRGMP SHOW. WOULD LIKE TO SHARE MY EXPERIECE AS WELL. MY DAUGHTER THOUGH HAS PERFORMED EXTRA ORDINARY NOT BEEN SELECTED IN FINAL LIST OF PARTICIPANTS SINCE SHE DOES NOT COME FROM POOR FAMILY OR WE DONT HAVE ANY PERSONAL CONTACT AT ZEE AND WE ARE OUT SPOKEN THE FINAL LIST IS NOT PREPARED ON QUALITY OF SINGING AND IF THEY WANTED TO DO THIS ZEE SHOULD NOT HAVE CALLED SO MANY CHILDREN FOR AUDITION AND PLAY WITH THEM!

  11. Urmila Dhangar was very confident from the very first day. She knew that she was a winner destined. The rest of the hoopla was only for show. However, I thoroughly enjoyed Abhilasha Chellam, Rutuja Lad, Apurva Gajjala, Rahul Saxena, Mayya Mayya girl and Ashwini Deshpande. Dhangar won because her name is Dhangar. Did you notice when Abhilasha was singing Jau Dya Na Ghari-Vaajale Kee Bara, Rahul could not even be heard. Urmila with her masculine voice overshadowed him. Such, is her hopeless quality.

  12. Thats true, it seems instead of encouraging singers we are disheartening them, with poor and biased verdicts

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