NEW DELHI: In an online competition that commenced early this month, a total of 30 singers will be selected in the finale of three phases to sing in the new programme “Live Studio” on “Chardhi Kala” television channel, beginning January 2017.

The recordings and names will be forwarded to various TV channels, music labels, Internet channels and event management companies to enable the winners to get a chance as playback singers if the songs catch the imagination of producers and music directors.

The first-ever online singing competition is being organised by Sakha Cultural Society in association with Rachnashala from 2 to 18 November. The competition is being organised in three age categories: up to 14 years, 14 to 60 years, and above 60 years. The competition will be in two phases.

Sakha Chairman Amarjit Singh Kohli said all details including rules about the competition are available on the website www.sakhaculturalsociety.org .

"In TV singing competitions, a singer has to personally appear for preliminary competitions which are are held only in big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknow etc and singers from smaller cities have to come to big cities for participation. Villagers can hardly participate in it," Kohli pointed out. He said thanks to the Digital India programme providing high speed internet in villages, persons in rural areas can also participate in the online singing competition.

In the first phase, singers cannot use any instrument so that they are at par with villagers who may not have the facility of instruments. He also told radioandmusic.com that in TV competitions, singers have to secure votes from the audience to qualify for higher grades. But in this competition, the singers’ voices will be evaluated on quality and merit alone. The system itself is fool-proof and it is neither possible for singers to use pressure or influence on judges, nor it is possible for judges to favour singers because the singers and judges will never know each other, he claimed.

Rachnashala president Narinder Singh said in the first phase, singers have to sing any one song of the forthcoming Hindi feature film '30 Minutes', which will be released on 11 November 2016. All details about songs, lyrics are available on the website www.sakhaculturalsociety.org .

A singer has to listen to the original songs and upload it in his or her own voice. After uploading, the singer will click the column “Get 00OTP” on the Registeration Form and will immediately receive his/her OTP which he/she will fill on the Form and press the Submit Button.

Within a few seconds, the singer will get his/her permanent Registration number on SMS and email. The site will then allot a new secret random number corresponding to the singer’s Registration number and send the song and the new secret number to various judges who will be eminent persons from the field of music.

The judges will select only 100 singers for participation in phase two. In this phase, singers can select any song, film or non-film in any language and also use any instrument.This will lead to shortlisting of the final thirty.

Sakha Cultural Society Chairman Amarjit Singh Kohli, who is also the Executive Producer of film '30 Minutes', has been promoting singing and acting talents for the last 50 years since 1966.