'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007' the musical show has been a fantastic platform, over the years, for up and coming talented young singers who wish to become popular playback singers.  The one quality which separates this show from others is that the participants are taken under the wings of well known musical maestros, who train them week by week, and then dependant on the number of votes garnered by the public, a contestant is voted out until there is only one left, who gets crowned the victor.

I must admit that I had never heard of 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' until I heard that Himesh was a Judge on the show, because I was THE BIGGEST Himesh fan ever, especially after he released; 'Aap Ka Surroor' - The Moviee' and I decided that I just HAD to watch the show!!!  I actually began watching the show from the 'tumhare ghar mein roti chaheeye' episode which shocked me because I thought that Himesh was a very shy and reserved man, and boy, was I in for a shock???!!!  In fact, part of me wishes that I had never watched 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007' because I really loved Himesh sooooo much before watching it and now my opinion has changed so much for the worse.  I will go into why, later.

The concept of this show was initially created as a platform for national participants only.  It wasn't until the year 2007 that Zee TV, taking advantage of the ratings and money making franchise, decided to go on an International search for the World's greatest singers, this search was spread over four Continents and narrowed down to just 32 participants in the end, who were trained by four musical maestros until the final verdict was announced.

Phase 1: Auditions in India and abroad

120 short-listed from a turnout of millions.

Phase 2: Short listing 120 short-listed participants arrive in Mumbai.

48 selected from 120 participants.

24 selected out of 48 participants.

24 short-listed participants.

Phase 3: Mentor V/s Mentor 24 divided into four Gharanas (houses), each with six members and headed by a mentor.

Phase 4: The final countdown with eight mega finalists plus a winner through public vote.

The host and the four main judges who participated in this show were as follows:

**This is just a general summary of them, please do a general internet search if you want to know more about them individually.**

ADITYA NARAYAN

Aditya Narayan is the son of legendary singer Udit Narayan (who is coincidentally one of my favourite Indian singers.)  He is a young and aspiring singer who also has acting and presenting skills under his belt.  I love the amazing way in which the young Aditya Narayan handled all of the drama that was transpiring on the sets.  He was brilliant!!!!  I have a hard time believing that at the time of the show, he was only 20yrs old - he is really smart and will go very far in his life.

BAPPI LAHIRI

Bappi Lahiri is a musical legend, he has over 30 years of experience in the music industry and is viewed as the original pioneer of Disco dance music in Hindi cinema, bringing his own flavour to the Indian music scene.  Bappi Lahiri's attitude towards the show was generally positive, he contributed some great ideas and conveyed some honest opinions, but, even he had his theatrical moments!

HIMESH RESHAMMIYA

Himesh Reshammiya garnered a massive fan following after his movie 'Aap Ka Surroor - The Moviee' - the soundtrack and movie became an international smash hit.  His ability to connect to his audience has won him fans, the world over.  He is the first Indian to have ever played at London's Wembley Arena, which is a great feat for anyone!  Himesh was also a judge in the last 'Sa Re Ga Ma' Pa in 2005 in which his student, Vinit Singh lost.  (I personally think that this loss was very personal to him and he became obsessed with winning at any cost in this Saregamapa, he became a walking, talking P.R disaster!)  I think that out of all of all of the judges, the negative impact will probably impact Himesh the most.  I am not saying that generally his popularity will suffer, but, losing a single fan is still a loss at the end of the day, which means less money in the pocket for him.  He was doing so well riding on the success of 'Aap Ka Surroor - The Moviee' and he was very smart, saying all of the right things in his interviews etc, but, in this contest I think that some people saw the nasty, vile side of Himesh that they didn't like.  I will go more into this, later on.  (I have heard that a particular website has given him a new nickname - I won't repeat it because it would be so unprofessional of me but, I will give you a clue - It rhymes with 'Reshammiya.') Lol! :0)

We salute you - Vishal & Shekhar-Ji!

We are not worthy!

The role of any DECENT judge is to try to be fair and partial, but, it is unfortunate that not all of the judges on the 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2007' panel, behaved in this manner, which is a real shame as some of them lost a lot of credibility, due to their behaviour.  As we all know, there was all sorts of melodrama ensuing onstage and backstage and the only judges who I found myself really loving and respecting were the honourable Vishal and Shekhar!!   The irony is that they are the youngest of all of the judges and they were exhibiting the most professional attitude of all!

I must admit that I had never heard of Vishal and Shekhar before 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2007' and now I have absolutely nothing but, love and respect for them!!  Not only because they were Raja's mentors, (although I was very touched by the way that they looked after Raja, like he was their own son.)  But, more so because, they were thoroughly professional throughout the show and they never ever felt the need to disrespect any contestant or judge in order to gain votes for their Gharanas and because of this, they absolutely ROCKED the show.  In fact, (to me,) they were the real gems of the show!  Their combination of Eastern music fused with Western Hip Hop has hypnotised people the world over and I think that 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2007' has done them the world of good, I doubt that they will ever hear of this website or get to know of it, but if they ever do, I just want to say on behalf of Raja's fans worldwide, that you guys absolutely ROCK!!!!!!!!!

Ismail Darbar's foray into the music industry began over 14 years ago, as a violinist.  He has recently turned his hand to singing upon Himesh's advice.  Some of his best work includes; Devdas' and 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam'.   He is very close friends with Himesh and in this musical contest, his attitude was generally okay, but there were times when he would team up with Himesh and gang up on Raja for no other reason than the fact that Raja was the biggest threat to both of their Gharanas (houses), which was so cheap and unprofessional.

Raja Hasan Sagar - A beautiful singer from the rich depths of Rajasthan, India, mesmerises the world with his magical voice!

...Why we all think that Raja deserved to win...

Well, I considered Raja to be the underdog who overcame all personal battles and contestants to win a place in people's hearts and minds, and that is a very hard thing to do.  It is very easy to win awards, but, it is very hard to capture people's hearts, minds and their imagination and because of this, I think that Raja is a priceless gem - an 'anmol heera.'  He dealt with many nasty situations and confrontations, which escalated on and off the sets, in the utmost professional manner and he melted our hearts with his incredibly sweet smile and reserved dignity - and these are the precise reasons why I think that Raja will excel the most after 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2007', even though he didn't actually 'win.'

Raja has the 'X' factor, which will ensure his super success and the reason why I have created this website immediately after the show is because it is important that by the next 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' that Raja's voice and image is still fresh in people's hearts and minds.  Although, in my heart, I don't think that it is possible to forget Raja's immense talent and I honestly believe that Raja will go on to be one of the biggest and one of the most successful reality TV singing sensations, that has ever been discovered.

As far as I am aware, Raja entered 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007' initially as part of the 'Eklavya' Gharana (house) which was a "reserved force" of eight singers. The exact purpose of this Gharana was not mentioned during the initial days of the show but, soon it was determined that it was a cleverly designed concept, that basically prevented a Gharana from getting eliminated in the initial rounds. The contestants in this 'Eklavya' Gharana performed on the second episode of the show.  Then each week, two contestants had to sing to prove their vocal abilities, before they were allowed to be selected into a permanent Gharana (house) and they then, replaced any of the contestants who were eliminated from the previous week. 

Raja first entered the contest on the 5th May 2007 when he sang 'Subah, Subah,' which was a fun, commercial pop song, which he sang beautifully, but it wasn't enough to give him the superstar status that he deserved, and it wasn't actually until over a month later when he got selected into Vishal-Shekhar's 'HIT IT' Gharana that he had the opportunity to really shine when he performed a Vishal-Shekhar composed song on June the 15th 'Allah Ke Bande' - I was absolutely blown away when I heard Raja sing this song - in my opinion, he actually sang it better than Kailash Kher (the original singer), that level of innocence, emotion, passion and divinity he conveyed in that song was unparalleled and overnight Raja went from being an average performer to a superstar. 

Click 'here' to see the magical 'Allah Ke Bande,' as performed by young singing sensation; Raja Hasan Sagar.

It is hard for me to explain why I think Raja (and Mussarat's) voice touched me the most, but, in my opinion, they were the only two singers who I felt had a divine connection to God when they sang.  It was a very moving experience.  I know that there was a lot of criticism which was levelled at Raja for singing mainly Sukhwinder Singh and Kailash Kher type songs, so Vishal-Shekhar had to switch their style and give Raja a mixed bag of songs to sing, which I feel he fulfilled to the best of his best ability but, in addition to this, they also emphasised the importance of stage presence and dynamics on stage, which Raja seemed to have perfected by the end of Saregamapa 2007, this was clearly evident because if you watch his first few videos, compared to his last few, you would never have thought that by the end that you would see the same performer dancing around to 'Chaiyya Chaiyya' - His progress chart has been phenomenal!

Just to make you all aware that all of his performances have been separately sectioned off in the video section on the main homepage.

Anyway, let me get back to the point.  On 16th June 2007, even though Raja performed 'Allah Ke Bande' so beautifully, unfortunately, he still couldn't make it to the final and got trapped in the 'Chakravyuh.'

In the 'Chakravyuh' episode, competition was really tough between Raja and Amanat, when they squared off against one another.  Raja sang; 'Tere Bina' and 'Piya Re, Piya Re,' unfortunately in 'Piya Re' Raja forgot his wording and his fate was sealed.  Raja was voted out of the competition.  Everyone was gutted, but, it was in the way that Raja handled this situation that melted everyone's heart, he asked God to give all of his fellow contestants equal success and then proceeded to dedicate a song; 'Meri Zindagi Ek Pyaas' from the movie 'Judaai' to Aditya because it was Aditya's favourite song and I must admit that I was almost moved to tears... There are very, very few singers in the world that can make me cry, but, when a singer CAN make me cry or make me laugh, that is the true mark of a great singer, a singer should be able to take you anywhere in that moment and when I heard his soulful voice, I was so touched - he did succeed in making Aditya cry though and it isn't easy for a man to make another man cry!  Everyone was mesmerised and shockingly, it was actually Himesh who requested Raja to sing a happier song to exit the show and so Raja obliged but, not before asking if he could hug Himesh.  I thought that this was an odd request, but, then I thought, maybe Raja felt that Himesh needed a 'jadoo ki jhupee' (magical hug) in life! 

Click 'here' to watch this magical performance once again!

I was soooooo upset when Raja was voted out of the show, but, Raja unbeknownst to him, had made a grand impression in his short stay, and sure enough when the opportunity arose, Vishal-Shekhar didn't disappoint as, when they were granted the 'Bramhastra.'  ('Bramhastra' is the final chance for the audience to get their favourite contestants back on the show. During the first and second round, the public is asked to vote for their favourite Gharana. The Gharana which gets the maximum number of votes, then has the opportunity to choose the 8 contestants who got eliminated in earlier rounds. Amongst these 8, two contestants got chosen by “audience votes” for the 'Agnipariksha' (Finals) round.  The chosen 2 contestants will also then belong to the Gharana which has got the 'Bramhastra.')  Raja was amongst the lucky few who were requested to perform by VS and Raja did not disappoint, he sang; 'Naina' from Omkara and left all of the judges and audience spellbound with his beautiful magic.  With these performances fresh in peoples minds, they voted in their droves and Raja and Harpreet got voted back in!!!

Yay!!!

From then on, Raja consistently outshined his young contemporaries whether he was performing such classics as; 'Ghanan Ghanan,' 'Hoga Tumse Pyara Kaun?,' 'Maa Tujhe Salaam,' 'Aake Sidhi Lagi' (This was absolutely hilarious) I will never forget how much I laughed when I saw him perform in a dual role of a man and woman - he was brilliant and to be honest I don't think that anyone else could have pulled this off so successfully.  Then other performances such as 'Kesariya Balam,' 'Hum The Woh Thi,' 'Jhanak Jhanak Tori Baje Payelia,' 'Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani,' 'Chaiyya Chaiyya,' 'Dard-E-Disco' etc consolidated his position as number one in our minds - The fantastic calibre of performances were endless and he gave his heart and soul, in each and every performance. 

Raja is the only artist who I can think of who actually emoted the best through his body movement and facial expression, he added a bit of his personality to each performance, whether that was a little bit of a cheeky attitude, a sad lonely expression, or whether he was just bopping to a song tinged with a 'PHAT' Bhangra or Hip Hop beat.  He nailed it on the head with each performance, in fact the only performance which I thought was slightly weak was 'Pardesi Pardesi' and that is not because he sang it badly, it was purely because it didn't suit his voice.  I think that this was the only time that I actually agreed with Himesh when he was conveying a negative opinion in relation to Raja, but I still didn't agree with the condescending and patronising way in which he spoke to Raja, feeling the need to belt out the song himself to show Raja how it was done properly.  (He looked really demonic when doing this.)  He was BANG out of order!

But Raja didn't take it lying down this time, I am sure that you all rejoiced when he fired back with a cheeky comment, stating 'I wasn't aware that the vocals were out of place, if I knew that, do you think that I would have entered this song contest?!'  Hahaha!  This turned Himesh into a sour face and if you recall the following week when Raja sang; 'Hum The Woh Thi' the second time around, all of the judges got on stage to sing with him, but Himesh stayed back and you could tell that it took every ounce and fibre of his being to get himself onto that stage, which he eventually managed halfway through Raja's performance.  (I just couldn't believe how childish and pathetic his behaviour was, Raja is just a young child trying to make his foray into the music industry and Himesh is already a self made multi millionaire....it just goes to show, how sad it is, that a man can be sooooo rich and yet soooo poor in life!)

In fact, his attitude reminds me of a very famous Confucius quote: 

'A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.'

Anyway, it didn't end there, I will never forget this particular episode because it was September 14th 2007 and my two favourite contestants, Raja and Mussarat were pitted against one other.  I was heartbroken, but to be honest on the versatility level Raja was far ahead compared to Mussarat and therefore I thought that he deserved to win in the long run, and although it was true that Mussarat had sang better than Raja, the week before, the audience felt that Raja was more deserving in the long run and Mussarat got voted out.  This again triggered Himesh's erratic behaviour and he just tore into Raja stating how he should feel 'guilty' for this win stating that even HE (Raja) knew that he didn't perform well the week before, I couldn't believe my ears, I almost fell off my chair and boy, was I glad when Vishal jumped in and stated that Raja had no reason to feel guilty about anything, I kept thinking throughout 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2007', 'Jenna, give Himesh a chance, he isn't that bad,' but, he kept proving me wrong week, by week!!!

I know that Raja and his family are WAY TOO NICE to say anything negative about the whole victimisation of Raja on the show, but, I am going to say what I think, because I believe that if you have an opinion, good or bad, that you should have the freedom to express it.

As Raja's performances grew stronger and stronger each week, their was an intense personal war which was ensuing between each Gharana, this wasn't something which I saw from Vishal-Shekhar or Bappi Lahiri's side at all, as they were behaving like professionals.  But, Himesh and Ismail (being the leader and follower) to one another, realised that Raja was excelling rapidly, in both the public and voting perspective, and therefore concocted a plan to create a bogus love triangle between Amanat, Sumedha and Aneek, which would promote both of their respective Gharanas.  (I must point out that I didn't agree with Aneek being drafted in half way through the show at all) but, hey, I have nothing against him as he is just a young kid trying to kick-start his career in the industry and I wish him the best of luck.  Anyway, let me get back to business, no stone was left unturned in trying to promote this fake storyline to the public and Sumedha (bless her) looked very embarrassed at the whole episode!!!  As far as I am aware, the ratings of the show went through the roof, but, the public were left infuriated which in turn, resulted in many petitions left, right and centre to stop the madness, and keep the focal point on the singing only.  (I am sure that many of you agree with me, when I say, what was initially meant to be a contest about great singers, was rapidly turning into a theatrical soap opera!!!)

Everyone knew that Raja was the biggest threat to their Gharanas, because he was the only performer who consistently adapted and became versatile in his performance techniques, and he pulled them off so effortlessly and although singers like Amanat and Aneek performed great themselves, their stage presence was not electrifying, like Raja's.  Raja rocked the crowd in virtually every performance, this was evident in the way that the crowd reacted to him and by the way that the judges/guests were commenting on his performances!  In return Raja became the bigger and better person in every situation and shared his love and genuine, warm smile with everyone, which made the public love him even more. 

Upon seeing this, Himesh became shamelessly obsessed with promoting Aneek to anyone and everyone, practically forcing it down people's throat to vote for him and commanding people to jump onto stage and dance with him, whereas Raja had people falling over him, without even trying!!!

Then to further try overshadowing Raja's popularity it became a Himesh VS Raja scenario.

I have a really interesting theory on the Himesh VS Raja situation.  I will start by analysing Himesh.

Please note that these are just my personal views and may or may not be something that you all agree with, but, I thought that I would share them with you anyway.

At a very young age, Himesh lost his older brother (due to a brain haemorrhage.)  This left Himesh absolutely heartbroken - it was an unexpected and cruel twist of fate that life had dealt him, this changed his life forever, as he had shared a very close bond with his older brother and when he died so suddenly, Himesh was left reeling in shock and it threw his world into disarray.  Himesh knew that at the tender age of eleven, he held the sole hopes and dreams of his family on his young shoulders.  This is a lot for a young child to bear.  (The dream of being a musical superstar was actually reserved for his older brother who was the one that was destined to become a successful Singer/Musician, but this was not to be, so Himesh had to take on the dream and start his career within the industry.)  This experience made him into a introvert and he didn't open up to anyone until he fell in love with a girl named 'Priya' (as far as I am aware, that was her name.)

It is evident through many of Himesh's songs that he has been through a lot of personal pain in relation to a girl whom he loved and never had the opportunity to get married to.  I think that not achieving this girl left him deeply traumatised and is probably something that he will never be able to overcome.  I think that her loss, left him feeling deeply emotional, vulnerable, insecure and with a deep sense of inadequacy and low self esteem which he himself has conveyed in a few interviews (which I have seen for myself, when I used to be a massive fan of his.)  I recall whenever he described himself it was always in a negative light and that is an area in which he needs to improve his way of thinking.  I have learnt in my young life that you should never put yourself down as there are enough people in the world who will do that for you!  I believe that after these experiences, his view on life has become almost cynical and bitter.  You have to admit that, it is bizarre to see him pine over a lost love in the public domain freely, when he has been married to another woman for over ten years! - (I don't think I would agree with my husband pining over another woman from the past!)

Anyway, I think that due to this unparalleled hurt and pain that he has experienced, he cannot cope with losing anyone or anything else in his life.  Everything in his life has become an obsession, he cannot accept being defeated by anyone and he always has to be in control of every situation.  Somewhere along the line, I think that succeeding (at any cost) has become a top priority for Himesh and he will destroy anyone who gets in the way of that goal and don't get me wrong, he is mega successful because of this very grit and determination, but, there has to be a balance in one's life and becoming too possessive, competitive and insecure can lead to destructive consequences. 

Himesh's insecurity was mirrored on virtually every show, when he continually commanded to be heard by people.  From observing his erratic behaviour, he always had to have the first and last say and always made it a point to talk over people and cut people off, midway through their sentences, even poor Aditya wasn't spared when Himesh grabbed his mic from him!  His verbal rants knew no bounds and became quite irritating, I found myself muting the sound on each episode when he ranted on about Aneek.  (I am sure that you will all agree with me on that one!) 

Another thing, which really frustrated me about Himesh is that, he never wholeheartedly supported any other Gharana, his competition became personal to him.  He would often be found praising his own students to the high skies, singing and clapping along merrily with them, (even when we all knew that they weren't performing THAT well,) which showed us, what a small minded individual he is.  In fact, I found myself getting sick and tired of his continual theatrics - I just wanted to hear the singers sing and judging by some of the vicious postings on the official Himesh page on the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Re-diff website, I think that many of you felt the same!

I personally believe that Himesh only disliked Raja for the sole reason that he was the biggest personal obstacle for Aneek to overcome, because we all know that the public loved Raja so much.  Raja was the biggest threat to all of the other Gharanas, and because Himesh's student (Vinit Singh,) had previously lost to Ismail's student Debojit back in 2005, he became obsessed with winning this show at any cost and he would do anything to try and bring Raja down.

One of the main reasons why I used to love Himesh so much is because I always thought of him as the victim of a cold and heartless world, a sweet and sincere man who never got his true love etc - So to see him in a complete role reversal (as a bully) on this show, showcasing his small-mindedness, completely shocked me, because I never expected it.  Any artist tries their best to portray themselves in the best possible light, (especially in the public domain,) but, he did the complete opposite, all by himself.  It was the worst form of self publicity ever.

Doh!

I must admit that I still love Himesh's music, but, I can never love him in the wholehearted way that I did before.  My whole opinion and outlook has changed for the worse!  In fact, I would really love to meet him someday and see what he is really like as a person, one to one - just to see if my opinion would change, now, that would be a mighty interesting meeting!!!

Then there was our sweet 'Dilo Ka Raja' - Raja Hasan Sagar!!!

Raja Hasan Sagar himself has led a very traumatic life as well, this is evident in the depth of his voice, when he sings I don't feel like it is just a person singing, I feel that divine connection to God, I can't explain it in words but, it is a deep experience that has to be felt in the heart and soul.  (I felt the same way about Mussarat Abbas when he sang as well) but, it is all about the way that you view your experiences in life and the way you pull through that makes you the person that you are.  I think that Raja is a very positive person who takes the good with the bad and just accepts it as the path that God has chosen for him.  In fact there are a lot of things about Raja that remind me of myself.  I always smile to see others happy and try to make other people feel positive about themselves and because of this, people always think that I am a happy person, but there is a lot of pain and sadness that resides within, which people do not see and can only be seen, if you are lucky enough to be let into the windows of one's soul.  That is why I think that Raja, even though he smiles so sweetly has a lot of pain and anguish hidden behind that adorable smile of his. 

Raja's compassionate and sweet approach throughout the entire show, really touched my heart deeply.  Especially the video clip, when he goes to see his family after so many years and he is overwhelmed at seeing his sister who is disabled, that love and sincerity that he had in his eyes, you could clearly see just how much he loves and adores her.  It was this precise sweet innocence, that reminded me of the beauty and purity of God...and how we should all endeavour to be in life.   

Click 'here' to see this sincere beauty again.

Towards the end of the show, I realised that things were just getting too nasty and personal, I will never forget that particular episode when Vishal and Shekhar were not able to make it onto the sets and I just KNEW that there would a vicious tag team between HR and ID against Raja.  Come on - We all knew that something was going to kick off, and Raja bless him, handled himself really well and I am glad that Adnan Sami was on the set because he was very genuine when he said that Raja was amazing!  Raja's voice was incredible when he sang 'Saiyyan.'  But, I personally loved 'Maine Poocha Chand Se' more, as that song was sang in such a sultry, sexy yet, innocent voice...what a killer combination!

Then remember the shock we all got when Vishal-Shekhar turned up as the surprise guests on the set?  They had shut down their whole music production to support Raja!  After making their grand entrance, they began by firstly pointing out how wonderful Raja had sang and then had a direct dig at the judges who had been disrespecting Raja!  Raja himself has said that this was one moment that he would never forget - he was so touched that music maestros that are SO big, shut down everything to come and support HIM!  Then we all know what happened next - Raja once again floored everyone with his brilliant version of Daler Mehndi's 'Rang De Basanti' - he was phenomenal, getting all of the audience worked up into a mass frenzy!

Once again Himesh started mouthing off on stage, saying something ridiculous about Raja being a number of years older than Aneek and therefore it was obvious that Raja was going to be declared the winner - I just couldn't believe that he could stoop soooo low and say something soooo cheap and even before this, many times when he had made comments about Raja in the past, such as 'Raja only has male fans' and 'all the women love Aneek' - My jaw hit the ground sooooo many times in absolute shock and I went from having one hundred percent love and respect for Himesh to having barely ten percent!  (The ten percent is reserved for him, because he sings from the heart and because his compositions are decent!)

MY JAW HITTING THE GROUND!!!!!!!

I know that many of us were left heartbroken when Raja was declared the shocking first runner up in this contest as when you honestly evaluated the last ten performances by Aneek in  'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007' and the last ten by Raja - it was evident that Raja was way ahead in each and every way. 

Now let's get to the voting system which I feel was very flawed in this contest, firstly, I found it highly bizarre that the winner should be decided between the last 3 contestants as oppose to the last 2, because that would have been mighty interesting to see who would have won - but, I guess that this unusual format would make sense if the results were pre-planned as Ismail had alleged.

Also, the fact that the programme aired approximately 5 days before being shown internationally actually meant that international fans only really had two days to vote as oppose to seven because five days would have already elapsed before we got to see it and another reason why the voting system was flawed, was because all of the countries that had access to this show did not have all methods of voting available and online internet voting closed in the U.K. approximately a day before the winner was declared and I think that within that time period, a single International vote could have tipped the scales if they had continued to be evaluated up until the phone lines were closed.  Remember, Amanat was actually number one on the international voting front.  

No doubt the audience generally felt disheartened when the verdict was announced, as half of the stadium had walked out by the time that Himesh had grabbed the mic.  I think it is fair to say that we all felt the same - we all wanted to shout 'put a sock in it, Himesh' in unison!  In fact, it is sad that due to Himesh's constant arrogance throughout 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007', that some people dislike Aneek which, I think is very unfair to Aneek as he is just a young kid, trying to establish his name, within the industry.

Anyway, I read some days later that the reason why Raja was so heartbroken was because he had planned to declare his love for his wife Ayesha in front of the whole wide world the day he had won and I thought; 'Wow, what a sweetheart!'  Such a selfless gesture and so admirable, and then he added in a 'matter of factly' tone that, he would still do this for her someday...Awww.

I must admit that when Raja lost, I was heartbroken for the next few weeks - I kept thinking about how I could maybe contribute in helping him out in some way, because I felt so passionately about this injustice and have so much faith and belief in his ability to reach greater heights.  It got to the point, where it was preoccupying my thoughts every day.  Then, I had an idea that I would create a collection of all of his work for his fans, which I did (it took me hundreds of hours to compile) and I posted it everywhere, which fans really loved and then in November 2007, I finally made the decision that I just HAD to create a website to showcase his talent and to speak my mind about this whole farce, and that brings me to where we are right now!  Another reason why I thought that it would be a good idea to create a website for Raja is because he is an up and coming artist who needs a lot of exposure and publicity, as oppose to the other two websites that I was running, which were dedicated to two already well known and established artists (Michael Jackson and David Blaine.)   I made the VERY difficult decision of closing both of those websites down, so that I could further concentrate, on publicising and promoting Raja Hasan Sagar's talent, which I hope you will all love and appreciate.

Anyway, just as you thought things couldn't get any worse, the  'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007' contest, was then further marred by controversy, when just days after the show, Ismail Darbar came out and declared that it was actually Raja who was the REAL winner and it was a pre-planned decision to make Aneek win the show!  Rumours were rife that Himesh had paid the television broadcasters, to make Aneek win and all sorts of gossip and innuendo was hitting the news headlines, whilst back in Rajasthan, angry mobs of people were burning effigies of Himesh....(Er...So, I guess that he is not welcome there then?!)

The timing of Ismail's comments completely baffled me,  if he honestly felt that something was wrong, why didn't he point it out at the time???  Why wait until the winner of the show was announced and then suddenly decide (when he realised that the tide of public opinion could possibly be going against him) that Raja was actually the REAL winner.  I thought that it was an absolute farce.  I concluded that maybe he was waiting for his paycheque to clear before going up against the head honchos!

Either way, I feel really sorry for Aneek because what Ismail has said has really screwed his fate.  He is being pursued by fans on the 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' tour who are wearing T-shirts such as 'RAJA - THE REAL WINNER' etc which is fine because fans feel so passionately about Raja, but Aneek's parents are also proud to see their son succeed.  So, as oppose to wishing anyone bad luck, we should all just accept that Raja is destined for something greater.  There is no doubt in my mind about that.  In fact, I know that if Raja would have won  'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007', I wouldn't have opened up this website, because I wouldn't have felt the need to.  So I guess something good comes out of everything!! Haha!!

Also I am a firm believer in; 'What doesn't happen, wasn't meant to be' so, let's all rejoice for now, as Raja is going to rock the world and I promise that I will try my best to help publicise Raja Hasan Sagar's talent, in any way that I can!!!

Written by Jenna Pal (Site Manager)

(PS) - I can sum up the whole Saregamapa experience as 'bittersweet,' I felt the 'bitter' part because we all knew that Raja should have won, but, I also felt the 'sweet' part because we wouldn't have known who Raja or Mussarat were, if it wasn't for 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007', so I want to sincerely thank Zee TV for bringing these two world class gems to our attentions!

I will leave you with this absolutely HILARIOUS video, which makes me cry with laughter, every time I watch it!!!

However, please do not watch it if you are easily offended!

(Click 'here' for 'SA-RE-DRA-MA-PA' - The Ultimate Saregamapa Spoof!)