Astro TV is ready to bring yet another season of Malaysia’s favorite television music contest in an even more dazzling avatar. With contestants from five nations- Malaysia, Singapore, India, Mauritius and Canada- taking up the mike, this year’s International Superstar unleashes the very best singing talents. Add to it a glittering lineup of celebrity mentors Mano, Sirpy and Adithyan, famous vocal trainers Maria, Prashanthini and Deepika, cornered tussle for the coveted top spot that carries a mega prize of USD 100,000 for the ultimate champions.
It has been 15 years since the launch of Malaysia’s first ever Indian talent search as a singing competition, “Padal Thiran Potti”. The competition has evolved and has become a sensation amongst the Malaysian Indian society. In addition, it has also launched some of the most popular contestants into superstardom.
The International Superstar was officiated by Honorable Dato’ Seri Utama Dr S.Samy Vellu, Special Envoy to India and South Asia on Infrastructure, Dr.Rajamani Chellamuthu, Senior Vice President of Content Management Group, AG First Secretary of the Mauritius High Commission, Mr.Vikash Neethalia, the first Secretary of Singapore Embassy, Madam Eyvon Liew, Mr Sivakumar Subramaniam the Vice President of Indian & External Production and Localization, Mr Subramaniam Veerasamy, Content Manager of THR Raaga Radio Station, Mr Chen Chaw Chang the Head of Marketing and Export at BOH Plantations Sdn Bhd, Mr. Chandran Rama Muthy the CEO of Malindo Air, the famous Kollywood artists Mano, Sirpy, Adithyan, T. Rajendar, C.Sathya, S. A. Chandrasekhar and Shoba Chandrasekhar.
International Superstar, Astro’s super hit musical show is coming back to the screens for yet another much anticipated season. The show, in its amazing 15th consecutive year, has always garnered high TRPs and rave reviews. Going by the track record and this year’s big bonanza; season fifteen is going to be its biggest year yet. Let’s check out the highlights.
The stakes are higher
This year, the prize money is bigger than ever before. There are bumper cash bonanzas for all the three groups in the fray. The 2nd runner up will take home USD 40,000, the 1st runner up will receive USD 70,000 and the champions will be awarded a whopping USD 100,000.
Group versus group – the concept continues
International Superstar continues with its group vs group format.
There will be fifteen contestants, three from each of the five participating countries – Malaysia, Singapore, India, Mauritius and Canada. These participants have been pre- selected through the ‘search, short-list and qualify’ route, and will be divided in three groups of 5; each with one singer from one nation. As per the tradition of the show, these groups will be titled Vinmeen, Vaanavil and Vellithirai.
The first six weeks
For the first six weeks, paired groups will compete against one another. In every episode, competing groups will earn points from their performances and the group with the highest tally will be the episode winner. At the end of the first six weeks, the group with the highest aggregate will be awarded the Regal Winner prize. Yes, even if they lose in the last episode, they still come out big stage winners and move on to the finale, where they are joined by the team that stands second in the aggregate score tally. The third team bows out at this stage.
The seventh and the biggest week
The top two groups begin on ground zero i.e. carry on the battle for the ultimate prize of the coveted International Superstar title, but without the baggage of the previous six weeks’ score tallies. The top two will earn their spurs all over again in the final week’s multiple rounds. The group that accumulates the higher score of the two walks away with the champion’s crown and the cash bonanza.
The mentors at work
Mentorship has always been a distinctive component of the Superstar contests. This year too, three famous mentors will nurture the singing talents throughout the show.
The first mentor is Nagoor Babu aka Mano. He is a successful Indian playback singer, voiceover artist, actor, producer, television anchor and music composer. A recipient of prestigious awards such as the Nandi Awards from the Government of Andhra Pradesh and Kalaimamani award from the Government of Tamil Nadu, Mano has recorded more than 30,000 songs and has performed at more than 3000 live concerts across the continents. The second Superstar mentor is Narayanan, more famously known as Sirpy. A well-known cine music director, soundtrack composer and sometimes singer, he scores music for Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. Adithyan, the third mentor is also an Indian music composer and playback singer. Like Narayanan, his portfolio spans Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. Whereas Sirpy has mostly sung his own compositions, Adithyan has sung for other composers too. A versatile artist, he also anchored a television cookery show to his credit.
Vocal trainers in charge of the talents
As always, there are three vocal trainers to provide guidance and tutelage to the contestants. This year, Maria Roshni Vincent, Prashanthini and Deepika have donned the vocal trainers’ mantle. Maria, a piano and guitar artiste, was born in Chennai and educated at the International College of Music (ICOM) in Kuala Lumpur and the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She is also a piano eighth grader from Trinity College, London.
Prashanthini, a Tamil playback singer, comes from an illustrious family of singers. She is the daughter of famous veteran playback singer Malaysia Vasudevan and a sister of actor-singer Yugendran. The third vocal trainer is Deepika. The very versatile and multi-talented Deepika hails from a very distinguished and distinctive musical tradition of GNB- MLV and has trained under Sudha Ragunathan since the age of nine. An actor, model and playback singer, she also holds a B Tech in information technology from Easwari Engineering College and is currently pursuing MA (Sanskrit) from Madras University.
These three leading musicians will be putting the contestants through their musical paces.
The judges’ panel
This year, the three high chairs of judges will be filled by T. Rajender, C. Sathya and Shoba Chandrasekhar. T.Rajendar, well known for his singular style of acting and innumerable artistic talents, is a successful veteran Kollywood actor, director, playback singer, dancer, songwriter, art director, production manager and scriptwriter. Through the 1980s, many of his movies were blockbusters with chartbusting music.
- Sathya is a South Indian music composer and playback singer. Trained in the Carnatic classical music and a virtuoso harmonium player, he has composed music for Tamil and Telugu movies such as Engeyum Eppodhum and Something Something. Sathya has played and programmed the keyboard for leading music directors such as Bharadwaj.
The third judge, Shoba Chandrasekhar is an Indian film playback singer, director, writer and producer. She is married to S. A. Chandrasekhar, who is an Indian film director, producer and writer. She is the mother of Kollywood famous actor Vijay. She was a singer in light music troupes. She later graduated to singing in films.
The anchors on the helm
The on-stage duties in this season will be handled by Gantheeban, better known as Ben G and Shatiyah. Ben G, an actor, singer, dancer, director, cinematographer and post production whizz has been on the Malaysian-Indian Entertainment scene since the age of 9. He has acted in over 200 Malay and over 60 Tamil productions. Ben G has also hosted Yuttha Medai Junior and Superstar.
Shatiyah, the co-host, is a regular on Astro Vaanavil. Apart from hosting “360” for two seasons, she has also played the anchor’s role in “Deepavali Kondattam” and “Thaipusam 2015”.
In line with Astro’s Going Global efforts, with the participation of international singers we have launched www.internationalsuperstar.tv . This website will be a one stop center for visitors to check out the participants’ performance videos, images gallery, and exclusive interviews of judges, mentors and contestants. We have also enabled video ratings for the viewers to rate each contending groups’ singing and performances.
Apart from that, we are also giving away “Astro Ulagam Viewer’s Choice Award” to the group that gains highest number of votes via SMS and online voting system. On top of that, we are also launching a mobile app for International Superstar show which embeds both Augmented Reality features and Facebook quiz app – aimed at engaging online users and give massive awareness to the programme through user engagement.
Users can take part in the quizzes within the application which allows them to challenge their friends and users within their social network.
For all the latest updates, viewers also can check out our Astro View E-Magazine and Astro Ulagam’s Facebook page – which is currently trending among online users with over 2.5million active engagement.
The stage is set. The audiences are ready. There is only one thing left to say before the show goes live. Malaysia, get ready to be gripped by the musical mania!
