Fame Gurukul is one of the most popular^{[clarification needed][citation needed]} prime-time shows on Indian television. The Sony Entertainment Television(India) program is produced by the same team that produced Indian Idol. The premise of the show is to select a pair of India's best singers/performers.

It is based on the Spanish/French Operación Triunfo/Star Academy format of Endemol, better known in English under the UK title Fame Academy; in Indian terms, it is essentially a mixture of Indian Idol and Big Brother (TV series). The show started out with 16 contestants living in a musical performance academy (Gurukul). Every week (normally) one contestant is voted out of the show, and so on until two will remain in the end, who will receive various prizes (recording contracts, cars, etc.).

Fame Gurukul Logo

[edit] Rounds

The show is divided into many rounds for each week:

• Gala - All the contestants perform on Stage, and up to four contestants are put into the "Danger Zone" by the Jury, and one is saved by the Faculty.
• Lamhe - A retrospective of the previous week, with highlights and some more details
• Academy Main 24 Ghantai - "Reality" portion of the show, covers various goings-on in the Gurukul Academy
• Ran bhumi - The contestants remaining in the danger zone perform once more for the audience, however, the voting begins from the gala itself, so some of the audience results would not have reflected the ranbhumi performances.
• Aap Ka Faisla - The National audience votes to save one of the contestants, and then the safe and saved contestants save one of the two contestants remaining in the Danger Zone. The other contestant then leaves the show. If there is a tie, then the Top Student for the week can reinforce his or her vote or change to the other contestant.

[edit] Prizes

The Fame Gurukul Fame Jodi will receive a Rs. 1 crore music contract from Sony along with a Maruti Alto each.

[edit] Season One

[edit] Contestants

• Ruprekha Banerjee
• Qazi Touqeer
• Rex D'Souza
• Arpita Mukherjee
• Sandeep Batra
• Arijit Singh
• Monica Gadgil
• Shamit Tyagi
• Gurpreet Kaur
• Deepshikha Sharma
• Mona Bhatt
• Amit Jadhav
• Kirti Sagatia
• Anubhav Suman
• Deepak Singh Meher
• Chhavi Sodhani

[edit] Faculty

[edit] Head Mistress

• Ila Arun

[edit] Music

• Padma Wadkar
• Praŝant A Samadhar

[edit] Dance

• Bosco
• Caesar

[edit] Fitness

Deepika Mehta

[edit] Judges

[edit] Jury Members

• Javed Akhtar - Lyricist / Screenplay witer / Poet
• K.K - Singer
• Shankar Mahadevan - Singer / Composer

[edit] Celebrity Judges

Occasionally a celebrity judge is called on the show to comment on the performances and to inspire the singers.Following is a list of special judges who appeared on Fame Gurukul :-

• Karan Johar
• Bipasha Basu and John Abraham
• Diya Mirza
• Anil Kapoor
• Alka Yagnik
• Madhavan
• Shreya Ghoshal
• Alisha Chinoy
• Aftab Shivdasani
• Bhumika Chawla

[edit] Presenters

• Mandira Bedi
• Manav Gohil

[edit] TV Production

• Anupama Mandloi - Executive Producer, Sony Entertainment Television India
• Paul Coueslant - Consultant Executive Producer, Endemol International
• Nikhil Alva - Series Producer, Miditech

[edit] Results

On 20 October 2005, the final show of Fame Gurukul was broadcast in which the final three contestants - Qazi Touqeer, Rex D'Souza and Ruprekha Banerjee battled it for the top spots. After much waiting and various shows in between, the results were finally announced. Qazi Touqeer, the favourite was one of the winners, while Ruprekha Banerjee made up the pair with him.

[edit] Celebrity Fame Gurukul

After the huge success of Fame Gurukul, Sony Entertainment Television brings you a bigger, better, more exciting and entertaining version of Fame Gurukul - CELEBRITY FAME GURUKUL. It's now the turn of some popular personalities to turn shishyas at the famous and prestigious Gurukul.

Nine popular television personalities will "go back to school" - Tanaaz Cureim, Ajay Gehi, Amit Sareen, Vinod Singh, Tisca Chopra, Bakhtiar Irani, Bobby Darling, Hansika Motwani and Smita Bansal are the new students at the Fame Gurukul. They now learn the nuances of becoming singers and performers, while competing for the grand prize.

The show promises you unlimited drama and excitement while watching the never-before-seen footage of the behind-the-scenes action and drama of the highly diverse group of celebrities. Get a unique opportunity to see your favourite television stars as themselves and not in character - no holds barred&no inhibitions. Their behaviour, quirks, egos, trials, tribulations, inter-personal relationship, competitive spirit and their struggle to survive at the Gurukul will be uncensored, unscripted and candid. And, for the very first time ever, you get to watch these celebrities in their new 'avataar' - as singers.

The proceeds of this show will go to the 'Make a Wish Foundation'- a non-profit organization dedicated to granting the most cherished wishes of children living with life-threatening illnesses.

Celebrity Fame Gurukul is based on the successful reality show called 'Comic Relief Does Fame Academy' which was a spin off on 'Fame Academy' produced by the format owner Gestmusic, part of the Endemol Group.

[edit] Making of the Fame Singer

After receiving close to 50 million votes, Celebrity Fame Gurukul will take the popularity of the show to new heights. The television celebrities who are all non-singers are now training together and competing at the Gurukul - where discipline and their raw talent will be professionally tested by the well-known team of Ila Arun, Prasant Samadar, Padma Wadkar and Bosco-Ceasar.

The format once again allows votes by the faculty, contestants as well as viewers who will ultimately decide the best singer and performer out of the nine television personalities. Spiced up with entertaining musical performances, gripping drama and high emotions, 'Celebrity Fame Gurukul' is sure to entertain the entire nation.

[edit] Contestants

• Ajay Gehi
• Amit Sareen - Winner
• Bakhtiar Irani
• Bobby Darling
• Hansika Motwani
• Jayati
• Smita Bansal
• Tanaaz Currim - 2nd Runner-up
• Tisca Chopra
• Vinod Singh - 1st Runnep-up
• Notice

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Celebrity Fame Gurukul Official website

v • d • e Star Academy Americas Canada (Quebec)  • United States Location of different versions of Star Academy. Europe Bulgaria • France • Georgia, Republic of (2009 abandoned after 7 weeks, collapse of building)  • Greece • Russia • Spain • United Kingdom • United Kingdom (Celebrity) Asia India • Philippines Pan-Regional Africa • Arab World • Adriatic Region