You are one of the best voices we have had in 15 seasons of Indian Idol.” With such high praise coming from no less than Shreya Ghoshal after a performance, Subhajit Chakraborty had sunk to his knees on stage. A few weeks on, he might miss out on the winner’s trophy and settle for the runner-up cheque for Rs 5 lakh but the West Midnapore boy would be remembered by the audience for what had become his signature — blending Bengali folk with Hindi film numbers.

Khamak in hand, the boy would effortlessly transition from Surili ankhiyowale to Amay dubaili re, or from Gori tera gaon to Golemale golemale or again, from Jug ghoomeya to Bande maya lagaise.

Compliment him on the novelty of the move, and the self-effacing boy gives the credit to his muse whose name he carefully writes out for t2 — Sookanya Senha. “She is the one who would advise me on matches between songs in beat and bhab (emotion),” he says, seated in the drawing room of Sookanya’s house, which appears to be his Calcutta address.

Subhajit admits how much Shreya’s presence on the judge’s panel helped as she would explain the meaning of the Bengali lyrics for the benefit of fellow judges Vishal Dadlani and Badshah as well as the non-Bengali TV audience.

He was also known for the varieties of paan he would serve the judges and, on one occasion, Manasi Ghosh, the eventual winner, who he calls his elder sister. “It was not a paan but a paan-shaped pichkari which I used to prank her,” he says, laughing at the memory of the mock-assault that Manasi launched on him for sprinkling water on her face.

Subhajit shares his background on being asked where he had learnt to make paan. “I come from a lower middle class family. My father rides a cycle with his harmonium to music classes. Our village Changual is 10-12 km from Kharagpur. There, 70 to 80 huts are made of mud, so is ours. The roof is of asbestos. Five of us share a single room — my parents, elder brother, my paralysed grandfather and me,” Subhajit says.

His mother was a jatra artiste. Subhajit and his father were both part of a folk song group but it was getting tough to make ends meet. “So in 2017, we opened a paan shop, which also stocked grocery items,” says the 22-year-old.

In 2021-22, he appeared in the Star Jalsha show Super Singer, where he met fellow contestant Manasi and Sookanya, a background singer on the show. Though he bowed out there at the Top 6 level, he cracked Indian Idol on his third attempt.

His biggest surprise on the show was seeing his parents appear on stage during an episode. “Even a Calcutta trip is a rarity for them. Bringing them to Mumbai was beyond my means. Even if the channel made all the arrangements, I was stunned how they took the train and travelled so far by themselves,” he laughs.

His current mission is getting a passport made. “I missed the Yas Island episode as I did not have one.” He has a Rotterdam show lined up in June with Manasi and second runner-up Sneha Shankar, and hopes to have the passport in hand by then.

“I have tried to add a touch of Bengal to almost every song I sang on Indian Idol. I will continue to do that in live shows,” he promises.