MUMBAI: Known for his soulful voice and music, Adnan Sami is the mentor for the upcoming show The Voice 3 to be aired on The StarPlus. The show that has been developed on the original concept of the namesake American reality show; in India, it has completed two editions and captured the right audiences. This edition gets bigger with the maestro A R Rahman being the Superjudge and the panel judge comprising music talent like Adnan Sami, Harshdeep Kaur, Kanika Kapoor, Armaan Malik.

While there are so many reality shows currently buzzing on air, The Voice stands apart for its selection process. Adnan Sami explains the differentiating factor, “The most exciting part of The Voice is the blind auditions. Unlike other reality shows, in The Voice when we are selecting a contestant, we are not facing him/her but just listening to his/her voice. This, I think is the most important part because we don’t get to know about the contestant’s appearance, caste, creed, background or anything. All that matters is their voice.”

Every judge is looking for ‘something special’ in the contestants they select. For Adnan Sami, it’s the overall effect in the voice, “Especially in our case of Indian playback history, we have always given more importance to the voice. Be it Raafi Sahab, Kishor Kumarji, Lataji, Ashaji, Geeta Dutt ji, their voice has been the hero. If you look at Raafi Sahab you wouldn’t believe he is the same person to give playback to Shammi Kapoor. Therefore, it’s in our DNA to think that the voice is the most important. And I personally am very proud of that. Because it doesn’t matter where you come from, how you look, what is your caste, religion-everything is irrelevant apart from the voice. For me, the most important thing about the voice is the asar or the overall effect. The whole glamour angle is very western.”

Continuing, he adds, “I have had experiences in the past, where the contestant was really good in his singing but just because he/she wasn’t that flamboyant and thus wasn’t selected and at the same time some of them were less in quality but greater in other aspects and were shortlisted.”

When a singer speaks about a phenomenal voice, a reference to Lata Mangeshkar or Kishore Kumar comes with the flow, “Sometimes a song sung by Lataji starts and you get goosebumps. Kishore Kumar was not a trained singer and yet had the capability to make you cry with his voice. Of course, the sur and taal are the pre-requisite.”

With this edition, Adnan says the audience can expect something really unique, “The contestants have a high benchmark given the previous editions. Also, the panel this time is a great blend of mentors from a different school of thoughts-I, Kanika Kapoor, Armaan Malik, Harshdeep Kaur and A R Rahman. So the outcome or judgement could be something really unique.”

Tune in StarPlus 3 Feb 2019 onwards at 8pm to see musical talent unfold.