The Voice (Indian TV Series)
The show first aired on 6 June 2015 on &TV and has aired for three seasons; it has produced three winners: Pawandeep Rajan, Farhan Sabir and Sumit Saini.
The first season of the series received positive reviews; one critic called the show "delightful", while another said that some of the participants on the show displayed fantastic singing. Due to the show's huge success, the channel announced a junior version which premiered on 23 July 2016.
Format
The show is part of the television franchise The Voice and is structured as three phases: blind auditions, battle rounds and live performance shows.
The Blind Auditions
The first stage is the blind auditions, in which the four coaches, all noteworthy recording artists, listen to the contestants on chairs facing away from the stage so as to avoid seeing them. If a coach likes what they hear from that contestant, they press the "I WANT YOU" button to rotate their chairs to signify that they are interested in working with that contestant. If more than one coach presses their button, the contestant chooses the coach he/she wants to work with. In the 3rd season, a new twist called "Block" is featured, which allows one coach to block another coach from getting a contestant. The artist's journey on the show comes to an end if no coach selects him/her. The blind auditions end when each coach has a set number of contestants to work with. Coaches dedicate themselves to developing their singers mentally, musically and in some cases physically, giving them advice, and sharing the secrets of their success.
The Battle rounds
The contestants who successfully pass the blind auditions proceed to the battle rounds, where the coaches put two of their own team members against each other to sing the same song together in front of a studio audience. After the vocal face-off, the coach chooses only one to advance into the next knockout phase, the Super Battle round. A new element was added in season three; coaches were given one "steal", allowing each coach to select one individual who was eliminated during a battle round by another coach.
In the Super Battle round, each of the remaining 28 artists performs a solo on stage to compete with three/four others for a place in the Grand Gala round. The coach can choose only two from each of these performances to progress to the top sixteen and the Grand Gala round.
In the Grand Gala round, there is no elimination and contestants sing individually.
The Live Shows
In the final performance phase of the competition, the top contestants from each team compete against each other during a live broadcast. The television audience vote to save one contestant on each team, leaving the coach to decide on live television who they want to save and who will not move on. In the next round, the public chooses between the two artists left on each team, and the coach also has a vote that weighs equally with the public vote.
Finally, each coach has his/her best contestant left standing to compete in the finals, singing an original song. From these four, one is named "The Voice"—and receives a grand prize money.
Production
The Voice India was created by John de Mol in the Netherlands and is based on the original Dutch series. de Mol then began to grow and expand The Voice competition franchise and on 6 June 2015, the Indian version of the show was launched on &TV. In April 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that &TV would broadcast The Voice in June 2015. Zee Entertainment Enterprises had bought the rights of the original version of the series from Talpa and John de Mol to telecast the Indian version of the show on &TV. The channel announced the series' premiere month as June 2015. &TV business head Rajesh Iyer said in a statement: "We are excited to present viewers with The Voice, a show which is already a global sensation, as one of our biggest non-fiction offerings." Talpa Media global managing director Maarten Meijs stated: "We are very pleased to be collaborating with &TV to bring The Voice to India." The show had been seen in 60 local productions in over 180 countries reach 500 million viewers worldwide.
In April 2015, &TV and show producer Endemol India and producer of South Africa's Urban Brew Studios announced leading Bollywood singers Himesh Reshammiya, Mika Singh, Shaan and Sunidhi Chauhan as the coaches for the first season and Karan Tacker as the host. In an interview with Mid-Day, Shaan said: "It's the most sought after show for any singer-musician. If you want to be on television and on a music show it has to be The Voice India." Endemol India and Urban Brew Studios SA announced that Terence Lewis would be choreographing the opening act for the premiere of the show.
On 30 July 2016, India Today reported that The Voice India would return with the second season. Shaan was again selected as the coach for the second season. Himesh Reshammiya, Mika Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan were replaced by Neeti Mohan, Salim Merchant and Benny Dayal.
In July 2018, the series was renewed for a third season and it was announced that the series is to be shifted from &TV to StarPlus as the channel sell its broadcasting rights to broadcast its onward seasons to StarPlus. In January 2019, Adnan Sami, Armaan Malik, Harshdeep Kaur and Kanika Kapoor were announced as the new mentors, with A. R. Rahman being the super judge. Asha Bhosle was introduced as the super judge for the final episode replacing A. R. Rahman.