Shovon at home after winning the Zee Bangla Sa Re ga Ma Pa title. Pictures by Gopal Senapati

The residents of Shantinagar Colony in Bally Sapuipara were in seventh heaven. For nine months their eyes were glued to their TV screens every evening from Monday to Wednesday to watch Zee Bangla Sa Re Ga Ma Pa to enable them to track the progress of para boy Shovon Ganguly. He was consistently on a high, moving inexorably towards the grand finale. On the day of the grand finale, at least 10 cars carrying neighbours, friends and relatives from Bally Sapuipara went to the helipad ground beside Hotel Hyatt Regency in Salt Lake, to watch Shovon perform and take the champion’s prize. “We were confident that Shovon would win. Everyone from the neighbourhood was supporting him and praying for his success,” said Seema Banerjee, Shovon’s neighbour. Although he won the show jointly with Kushal Paul from Sonarpur, the joy was not diminished. Howrah could boast a reality show winner after a long time. The last champion was Ravi Shukla from Santinagar, Liluah, who won the Voice of India title in 2009.

Shovon performing at Zee Bangla Sa Re Ga Ma Pa

Winning the title at Zee Bangla Sa Re Ga Ma Pa was Shovon’s first big win in reality shows on television. “I have earlier been to reality shows on other channels, where I was either first or second runner-up, but I have never won such a big show,” said Shovon. The joint win was not expected, but Shovon has no regrets. “I am not unhappy about it because in the past nine months, all of us had become good friends and it didn’t feel bad to win jointly with a friend,” he said. Shovon also won the viewer’s choice award for which viewers of the show voted for him. The prize booty was shared by both winners. While Shovon took the winner’s cash and viewer’s choice award car, Kushal took the winner’s car. After a good nine months of rigorous training and competition, he is taking time to revert to ordinary life. “Through the nine months we were not just trained in music but were also groomed to be presentable on stage and in front of the camera,” he says in retrospect.

Much of Shovon’s previous experiences helped. In 2011, Shovon had gone to Mumbai to take part in X Factor, another musical reality show aired on Sony Television. “I stayed there for five months. In that format, the participants were placed under different gurus and I was under Sonu Nigam. The judges of that show were Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. I learnt a lot in Mumbai, because that was the first time I stepped out of the sheltered life of home,” said Shovon. Right from learning how to use social networking websites to how to look presentable before the camera, and also how to be a good performer, Shovon mastered it all in Mumbai. He was, however, voted out after he reached the top 10 squad.

With judges Kumar Sanu (top) and Joy Sarkar

Shovon’s first guru in music was his father, Swapan Ganguly. A singer of Rabindrasangeet and adhunik gaan, Swapan discovered his son’s talent at a very tender age. “I found all the elements that make a good singer in my son when he was hardly a year old. He had a clear sense of rhythm and beat, something that many people lack. I was sure that he would be able to make it big in music,” said Swapan. Quite unlike most parents, Swapan would urge Shovon to prioritise singing before studies. “My father always wanted me to become a singer. However, I managed to juggle both studies and music,” said Shovon. After his initial training under his father, Shovon went to learn classical music at Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty’s school, Shrutinandan. “I was a studying in school at the time when my father took me to join Shrutinandan,” said Shovon. He trained there for seven years before joining composer Abhijit Bandopadhyay. However, Shovon could not continue for too long. “My mother would take me for music classes at that time and she was not keeping well. It was difficult for her to take me everyday. So I had to go to Jayanta Sarkar in Gangulybagan for training,” said Shovon. Jayanta Sarkar took Shovon closer to big reality shows. “Earlier, I had participated in Eto Sur Ar Eto Gaan on Doordarshan, Tarana and Surdariya on ETV Bangla but Jayanta Sarkar told me to aim higher,” he said. Shovon had to change his genre of music. “Jayanta sir told me to listen to popular Hindi songs and also to learn to sing them. Earlier, I would only sing classical, semi-classical, adhunik and old Hindi songs,” said Shovon. Although not quite to his father’s taste, Shovon has had to master modern film music. “My father would not appreciate Bollywood film music and would think that I am not doing the right thing. However, now he realises that this music is popular,” said Shovon.

The Zee Bangla audition came a few months after Shovon returned from Mumbai. He had given his auditions at Barrackpore and then at Lake Land Country Club.

With his parents and (above) with other participants of the show

After selections, it was a good nine months’ journey, and Shovon liked every bit of it. “We lived like a family there, something I am missing right now. We had Durga puja, Lakshmi puja and other festivals on the sets, something that is not seen in reality shows. Our director, Abhijit Sen, was cooperative and helped us select songs and judges Kumar Sanu and Joy Sarkar would encourage us and even interact with us outside the sets,” said Shovon. A winner of the Performer of the Week award 19 times on the show, Shovon was always strong in classical and semi-classical songs. “But in reality shows one has to be versatile. The judges often asked us to sing songs of different genres,” said Shovon.

The show has won him a playback contract with Venkatesh Films along with cash prize of Rs five lakh and a brand new car. Shovon has already signed up as a playback singer for the upcoming Bengali film, Half Serious, in which Joy Sarkar is the music director. Work on it has already started.

But Shovon has not given up studies either. A student of third year Bengali (Hons) at Vidyasagar College, Shovon is preparing for his final year exams in April. “I appeared for my second year exams while participating in Zee Bangla Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and now I have to take down the notes of all the classes that I missed and prepare for my final exams in April,” said Shovon. With his feet firmly on the ground, Shovon has decided to keep other avenues open in life. “Music is my first priority and I hope to be successful in future but I also want to become a teacher, which is why I decided to study Bengali (Hons),” he said. Practice or riyaaz does not follow any strict schedule. Shovon practises at any time of the day. “I have never forced him to practise in the morning. I taught him to give a few hours everyday to music and that can be at any time,” said Swapan.