MUMBAI: In a scenario where the consumer is over feed with singing reality shows, Colors offers something new with ‘Rising Star’. The show will definitely not have aliens or the Martians performing on the show, but it will have an audience connect through live voting.

The Indian audience is used to watching live TV only during cricket matches, that has now extended to other sports, but Colors’ turns out to be the pioneer in the entertainment space. ‘Rising Star’ will be the first musical reality LIVE show.

The show presented by Oppo camera phone is supported by a real-time mobile application named Colors TV app. The app is being currently being promoted on Colors’ Bigg Boss. The show’s host Salman Khan has also explained the ways of using this app, but if you’ve missed the explanation there, check it here -

In the downloaded Colors TV app, click on Rising Star, vote for the participant performing live by swiping, yes or no.

79 per cent of vote control is in the hands of 130 crore Indian audience who will also be judges of the show and the participant will need at least 70 per cent votes to reach the next round.

The expert panelist Shankar Mahadevan, Diljit Dosanjh and Monali Thakur will have only 21 per cent of the votes with them and would be mentoring the participants. Interestingly, the participants do not have any age limit neither will there be any bar in the form of singing. One can perform solo, duo or with a band. The participants will be judged on the ability to entertain and engage the audience. This format is currently seen on Star Plus’ ‘Dil Hai Hindustani’.

Most would wonder how a live format can be a success. The channel too does not guarantee much, but they did reveal that on Day 1 of the app being introduced on ‘Bigg Boss 10’ viewers it received more than a million downloads.

Musical maestro Shankar Mahadevan said, “From the beginning the format itself is different. Here the show will start and end at a particular time while all the actions like live voting would be done in the meanwhile. The desiring factor is by the end of the show the results would be out. The production, execution, live show everything is different.”

Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh stated, “Singing live is not an easy task. The main aspect is that we do not have a week to edit the episode before telecasting it. I do live shows and understand being live is not everyone’s cup of tea. We experts are here to see the performances and I will be enjoying myself, but India as a whole will be judging and I am sure this is going to be a big hit.”

The unique concept has been under execution for eight months now and Colors team is working hard towards it. Colors CEO Raj Nayak said, “Colors team keeps travelling abroad. During one such tour programming head, Manisha Sharma and her team saw a show like this (Rising Star) in Israel and that is how the idea of a live musical show came into our minds. Our team travelled thrice to Israel, conducted workshops, met the production team to understand the concept well and finally we are here.”

A singing reality show was always on Colors to-do-list but the need to bring in a different concept was holding them back. According to the team, they have come up with a digitalised show at the right time.

Nayak explained, “Dil Hai Hindustani and Indian Idol are produced shows, whereas we are live and that is how we are different. Colors has done live events like Filmfare live, but never a reality show and this is completely live, no editing. It is not only difficult for the participants but also for the judges as they have to think on their feet and be attentive always.”

The first season of ‘Rising Star’ is yet to take off, but the captain of the ship Raj Nayak has already started planning for Season 2. “The show will have a second season, as we do not want to sit as losers with just one season of the show,” stated Nayak.

‘Rising Star’ will be aired from 4 February 2017, every Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm.