A participant sits in despair at Science City after the audition was cancelled and others like her were lathicharged for vandalism. Picture by Aranya Sen

?At five in the morning there?s a long queue from Science City on the Bypass. Watsup?? read a frantic SMS from an airport-bound executive on Friday.

The cause for the chaos: the country?s first auditions for Sony Entertainment Television?s Fame Gurukul, the talent hunt being promoted as the next big thing after Indian Idol.

Some hopefuls had been camping at the Bypass venue from the day before. One of the participants recounted seeing a family from Tibet, another from Bhutan, groups from Kashmir, Punjab, Nepal, and a band of 26 from Jharkhand waiting through Thursday night for a shot at 15 minutes of fame.

With no one to show them the way and no clear instructions from the organisers, tension at the venue started rising with Friday morning?s mercury. By the time the gates finally opened around 9 am, the crowd had swelled into an enormous, angry mob.

The organisers were clearly not prepared for the turnout, sparking chaos and a stampede. Crushed by the demand for auditions, they decided to cancel the day?s proceedings. The announcement was made around 10.30 am.

The vandalism started soon after. Windowpanes, lights and decorations on the Science City campus were smashed. The makeshift wooden gate and banners at the entrance were torn down and burnt. Bricks were hurled in the general direction of organisers and cops.

As the situation worsened, and the crisis spilled on to the vital stretch linking the city to the airport on the one hand and the south-eastern areas on the other, police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the mob.

?Amra participate korte eshechhi, maar khete noy (We came to participate, not get beaten up),? fumed a youngster, pointing to his torn trousers. ?There wasn?t a single woman police personnel and we were beaten up by policemen,? cried Ritujaya Banerjee, a participant from Tollygunge.

?It was a nightmare,? said Saloni Sharma, a Class XII student who has just turned 18, making her eligible for the contest. ?During the stampede, so many people fell on me and I was almost knocked unconscious. A girl beside me started vomiting. I don?t think I?ll go to such an audition ever again.?

By around 1 pm, police managed to clear the premises but lack of proper information and rumours kept the crowd hanging on. ?When will they start the auditions again?? ?Are there some participants still inside appearing for audition?? ?What will happen to us now?? were some of the questions floating around.

Even after being driven out, some die-hards clung to the gate, waiting for it to open, while others huddled together for an impromptu song session. Very few, after waiting hours in the heat and humidity, were ready to call it quits.

Debolina Bhowmick, 21, a B.Com student, was there till evening. ?I came to try my luck, and would have been happy just to have got a chance to audition. But now, I don?t think I want to any more,? she said, finally leaving the venue that had transformed itself from a doorway of dreams to despair within hours.