NEW DELHI: The six finalists of the third edition of `Indian Idol` feel that a major benefit of the music competition, even if they are not selected, would be the new confidence they have gained to face the future. Even if they are not chosen Indian Idol but manage to get singing assignments, Prashant Tamang from Darjeeling who is a police constable of Nepali origin and Meiyang Chang from Dhanbad who is a dentist of Chinese origin are sure they would not be able to bid a complete farewell to their primary professions. These two along with the other four finalists - Emon Chatterjee from Kolkata, Pooja Chatterjee from Dhanbad, Amit Paul from Shillong, and Ankita Mishra from Kanpur - were in the capital as part of a six-city concert tour. While they have already performed earlier in Ahmedabad and Lucknow and performed this evening in the capital, they are now slated to go to Pune, Indore and Kolkata. Asked who they felt should not have been eliminated from the rounds so far, they said at a press meet here that Deepali`s ouster had made them all feel very insecure. Emon and Ankita are both sitting for their Board Exams this year and said their classmates where making the notes for them so that they could still go back and appear for the finals. All of them said the selection in the top six was fulfillment of a dream. It was especially so for Amit and Ankita, who had eliminated but were chosen by the judges to be brought back into the competition.

Pooja who has been studying music in Kolkata since the age of four said it was her parents` dream that she should make a name for herself in music. Amit felt that one of the principal gains of this `unusual` journey had been the bonding that the group had formed.

Chang did not agree that the disagreements between judges that appeared to get nasty at times were put on, and said the judges were frank in their opinions since they wanted to best in the contestants to come out. Pooja added that though the comments of the judges at times appeared hard, they helped the contestants to do better the next time. Ankita said this had helped her to get focused when she had been eliminated early in the rounds.

Shola Rajachandran, who heads the Media Communications for Sony Entertainment Television, later told radioandmusic.com that the music show had proved that talent did not only lie in the four metros. She was answering a question about the coincidence that all the six finalists are from the eastern part of the country. She said the third edition was different in terms of the number of Indian cities it had covered - twelve - apart from two foreign destinations for auditions. The auditions were held in Jodhpur, Bhubaneswar , Hyderabad, Amritsar, Srinagar, Nagpur, Vadodra, Bhopal , Kampur, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

She said in reply to a question that Sony was bound by the rules set by Pop Idol and therefore was conducting the show in the manner stipulated by the original show. The only change had been the introduction of a fourth celebrity judge, but she said this had been done keeping in mind the theme of the week. For example, it was Ila Arun for the week when folk songs were sung, and it was Anil Kapoor when patriotism was the theme. Similarly, Sonu Nigam was appearing this week when modern film songs would be sung.

She claimed that Indian Idol Three had achieved almost the same ratings as Indian Idol One and was certainly ahead of Star TV`s Star Voice of India. She conceded that Zee TV`s SAREGAMA Challenge was ahead, but said there was no competition since that show came at 2200 hrs whereas Indian Idol was telecast at 2100 hrs. She also denied that the introduction of the `Indian Idol Ru-ba-ru` on Thursdays was an attempt to get TRPs. She said the contestants were doing a lot of other things like social work, concerts and taking part in other events, and so the new slot was only aimed at showing this, since it could not fit into the contest telecast on Friday or the elimination round on Saturday.

In reply to a question, she said each winner would be trained by SONY BMG for one year before recording the first album to bring perfection to the voice. In addition to a recording contract with Sony BMG, the winner will be awarded a contract worth Rs ten million with Sony Entertainment Television.

Indian Idol is being produced by Miditech for Sony TV, and judges are composer Anu Malik, singers Alisha Chinai and Udit Narayan, and lyricist Javed Akhtar. Launched in Britain as Pop Idol but popularized by the American Idol, the series had already traversed to 28 countries in forty channels all over the world.