Ex-Indian Idol Contestant Exposes Its Allegedly Ugly & Inhuman Audition Process

Indian Idol has been one of the most popular shows on television. It has featured talented judges, nail-biting competition, hilarious auditions and a ton of memes.

Many of its winners have gone onto perform for Bollywood and even more have faced heartbreak. Some episodes have also featured spats between the judges and the contestants. But, according to a Twitter user, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Being a participant of the 2012 edition of Indian Idol, Nishant Kaushik opened up about his audition experience. And, if it’s true, then you’ll never see the show in the same way again.

1. Those are real people in those lines.

May. Mumbai. I rocked up at the venue more out of casual interest. On joining a queue 2 km long I noticed enthusiasts who had arrived there as though their lives depended on them. Some with their mothers holding Prasad, other rebels who had braved odds and traveled alone.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

2. And the truth bombs begin to drop.

In those long hours of waiting, no accessible toilets or food stalls or drinking water taps. If you step out in search, you risk losing the queue which you'd then have to rejoin. Anyway at 1 pm the long wait ended right? Wrong.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

3. They’re singers, not actors!

Sure enough, one aspirant fell to the bait. Fell at Shriram's feet. Dozens of retakes demanded by the director. When the aspirant said he couldn't do any more retakes, assistants on the set abused him and threatened to have him off the auditions if he didn't comply. He complied.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

4. What’s with the constant abusing?

When we asked the crew if we could step out to get lunch and water, we were told to do so at our own risk. As if auditions would begin any moment. Contestants who made enquiries about the actual commencement of auditions were either not responded to, or showered with vile abuses.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

5. This is just disgusting.

During all this I met two interesting aspirants: one med rep from an Indian village I don't remember the name of, who dragged his right foot in a broken slipper. And another, who was blind in both eyes. And then I saw the crew make a merciless meal of both of these kind souls.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

6. Did anyone check if the crew of Indian Idol are even human?

Then they asked about his family. He said he had a mother who was now dead, leaving him orphaned and all by himself. Sudden twinkle in crew's eyes because they now had meaty content for a camera shot. They probed him in several ways on "what brings you here".

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

7. This is brutal.

Hours passed by. At around 8 PM, we were finally given badges and ushered in. no auditions yet. We were taken to the basketball court where for hours at stretch we were made to scream "We LOVE INDIAN IDOL!" right before our voices were supposedly going to be tested.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

8. From verbal abuse to physical abuse.

A scuffle followed. Crew members rescued their colleague who was assaulted, by dragging the contestant along the floor and evicting him from the room. Late into the night, we finally arrived in a corridor that had a line of rooms hosting the auditions.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

9. The bravery of these contestants should be lauded.

The naive thought this was a smart way to quicken the filtering process of worthy contestants. The smartass crew knew better. They giggled at the contestants who sang horribly, and directed them to the only room that had a camera inside it. The rest of us got non-camera rooms.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

10. That’s not at all funny.

That mockery went on. The judges relished that fellow's naivety, asking him to keep taking a pitch "higher and louder" till his voice turned into frail shrieks that sent them into peals of laughter. He came out in tears. Elsewhere in the corridor we heard of contestants fainting.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

11. Their excuse will be that that’s how show-biz works.

My summarized observation of Indian Idol was that it decorates and recognizes maybe 10 or less, very worthy participants annually. But en route it quashes a million people's hearts by disrespecting them, ridiculing and abusing them, denying them a conducive atmosphere to contest.

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

12. They didn’t spare the labourers as well.

True talent is rare. But every aspiring artist's pride stems from the encouragement it gets from its colleagues and friends and mohallawallahs and family. In those little nooks and crannies, each of them is a "star". Reality shows have no right to disrespect that. <END>

— Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) August 20, 2018

It’s needless to say Indian Idol has provided a national level platform for singers to showcase their talent and carve a niche for themselves. But that doesn’t allow the show organizers to mistreat and abuse contestants just because they are in need. It’s a classic case of abuse of power and position to garner TRPs by adding unnecessary ‘masala‘ in the form of forced ‘mein gareeb hoon‘, ‘meri vidwa ma aur andhi behen‘ kind of stunts. It’s a talent platform for singers. And it should stay that way. Period.

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