Assam Votes Out Hyderabad!

Hyderabad hopeful Hemachandra was voted out of Zee's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 at the shoot in Mumbai on Tuesday. With 32 lakh votes cast in his favour, he didn't have quite enough to stay in the running. Debojit earned 50 lakh votes and Vineet followed with 46 lakhs, causing Hemachandra's mentor, Adesh Shrivastava, to fume about unfair regional voting on set and ensuring that the controversy surrounding the show continued. Hemachandra, however, was his diplomatic self. "Whatever has happened, I will take it positively. I don't feel capable of speaking on whether it was fair or not, but I accept the decision."

"Should we call ourselves Indian first, or Bihari, Assamese, Hyderabadi etc.!" was the question of debate on the set. In a true cats-n-dogs fight between contestants and their mentors, the talent-hunt show saw yet another heated dramatic scene while the shooting for the semi-finals was on.

The crew of the show, who are still trying to put last week's fight on the set behind them and concentrate on the work, were in for yet another shock when Adesh Shrivastava and Himesh Reshammiya, Vineet's mentor, staged a walk out saying they didn't believe in the voting process. As per the rules of the show, Debojit (representing the North-East) had earned the maximum number of votes yet again, forcing Hyderabad's Hemchandra out of the show.

Both Reshamiya and Adesh claimed that Debojit's win was not acceptable since he was getting votes from all quarters of North-East while their protegs got votes only from their respective states.

What followed was utter chaos on the sets with everyone accusing each other. The show's director, Gajendra Singh, pretending not to be disturbed, said that this was quite normal since people close to the contestants are emotionally charged and the voting system is perfectly alright. It is public opinion and it should not be questioned. Himesh and Adesh were not contactable at the time of filing the report.

Even though everyone is tight-lipped about the incident, a source, associated closely with the show revealed that everyone concerned with the show got a strict warning from Zee management after last week's fight and have been asked to behave themselves. That explains the reason why was this ruckus was called a 'routine fight'. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, that Sa Re Ga Ma has become a permanent battlefield between contestants and their mentors.