The first season of Indian Idol changed the way Indian audience consumed reality shows and even after 19 years, the fans of the show clearly remember the tough fight between Abhijeet Sawant and Amit Sana for the title. Many reality shows have aimed to get to that level of fame but not many have been successful in achieving it. While the successful first season launched the show in a great way, the contestants associated with it did not get what they were potentially promised. 19 years later, runner-up Amit Sana has said that the channel blocked his voting lines two days before the last date to make Abhijeet Sawant win.
In a chat with Siddharth Kannan, Amit said that the turning point for Abhijeet came after Shilpa Shetty praised his smile in one of the episodes. “A lot of things changed after that. He was taken seriously after that,” he said. Amit then accused that the channel of being partial towards Abhijeet and said, “My voting lines got blocked out two days before the last day. It doesn’t get blocked on its own.”
He then added that there was some chatter about political influence that helped Abhijeet win the show. “A lot of people say that there was some political influence involved during that period of time but that’s all just heresy. I haven’t researched it on my own,” he said. But then, he himself justified the channel’s actions and said that they have to keep many things in mind before selecting a winner and this was not an electoral process where they were required to be transparent. He apologised to Abhijeet for bringing this matter up after nearly two decades, and said that the two still share a warm and friendly relationship.
Amit also spoke about Rahul Vaidya, who was the second runner-up on the show, and said that he was intimidated by him on the show. He also revealed that the two had their share of fights even during the show. “We used to fight a bit during the show. He used to say things to instigate me,” Amit said.
He then said that Rahul thinks about himself before anyone else, and was disrespectful to the crew during the show. He also added, “From what I understand, he likes to accumulate power. He has always been with people who are very powerful. He has great connections in the political circuit.”
