In the results that were announced on Sunday, Haryana’s sensation Salman Ali grabbed the title of the 10th edition of the singing-reality TV Show, Indian Idol. The 20-year-old bagged whopping prize money of Rs 25 lakh and a Datsun car in the grand finale.
Ali is already a popular singer, with songs in Sui Dhaaga: Made In India and Chandragupta Maurya, a TV show.
Mewat, Haryana resident in an interview said, “I would like to thank the audience and the judges for making me the winner. People from my village are very happy. I am getting lots of calls. They are distributing sweets there and bursting crackers.”
The winner added, “We are all like a family only. We used to crack jokes, help each other and have fun so, there was no competition. As far as being a winner is concerned, everyone comes here to win only. But I had thought that even if I didn’t win, at least I got a lot of love from the audience.”
On the question about how he would utilize the prize money, he said, that his house is not in a good condition, the roof needs fixing. He added further, “we had taken loan. So, I would like to use the money for all this. I want to take my life forward with this money.”
Sharing his struggles, he said, “I have just studied till ninth or 10th grade. We have our family business which is singing. So, I started earning when I was just seven years old.”
He did not have any money to go to Delhi for the audition and a close friend of his stepped up and helped him with the finances.
Salman is the youngest amongst his five brothers and sisters. Though he sings a variety of genres, Sufi is his favourite.
The lad, who now has Bollywood dreams, had earlier participated in other reality contests too. At the age of 13, in 2011, he was the runner-up of another TV reality show, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champ.
The grand finale of Indian Idol 10 saw the team of Aanand L Rai’s film Zero having fun and interacting with the finalists. Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif were seen getting bowled over by the performance of the contestants and wished them luck for the finale. Apart from the team of Zero, the gala evening had the finalists performing with eminent singers like Pyarelal, Suresh Wadkar, Bappi Lahiri and Alka Yagnik.
Ankush Bhardwaj and Neelanjana Ray who claimed the next two positions won Rs 5 lakh each. Nitin Kumar & Vibhor Parashar were the other contestants in the top 5. They took home Rs 3 lakh each.
Indian Idol 10 finale: Salman Ali wins, Ankush Bharadwaj runner-up
