Winner of Indian Idol Abhijeet Sawant recently slammed the singing reality TV show – Indian Idol 12, in an interview with a leading daily. The singer expressed that the show is based on contestants’ sob stories rather than their vocal talents. In an interview with ‘Aaj Tak,’ he said, “These days, the makers are more interested in whether the participant can polish shoes or how poor he is, rather than his talent. You should watch regional reality shows where viewers may not know anything about the background of their favourite contestants. Their focus is only on singing, but in Hindi reality shows, the tragic and sad stories of contestants are shown. The focus is only on that.” He continued bashing the show by saying that the show purposely overdramatizes and exaggerates moments to entice viewers with the drama. Sawant recalled the time when he forgot the lyrics to one of his songs while on the show and claimed they had dramatized that incident as well. In an interview with ‘Aaj Tak,’ he said, ‘These days, the makers are more interested in whether the participant can polish shoes or how poor he is, rather than his talent’ He revealed, “The judges decided among themselves that I should be given another chance. But I can tell you with confidence that had it happened today, it would have been served to the audience with full dramatic effects of thunder and shock. But the viewers are also responsible. Hindi language public is always hunting for more spice,” he said. Earlier, the show was criticised by Kishore Kumar’s son Amit Kumar when he said that he didn’t enjoy the special episode dedicated to his father at all but was asked to praise the contestants regardless. Currently, Indian Idol 12 is hosted by Aditya Narayan. It has been shifted to Daman amid the deadly novel Coronavirus pandemic as the shooting of films and TV shows have been stalled at present. The show is judged by Neha Kakkar, Himesh Reshammiya and Vishal Dadlani. Recently, Anu Malik came on board as a replacement of the latter.