Rajan calls his Indian Idol 12 win 'bittersweet'

The talented singer Pawandeep Rajan emerged winner of 12-hour grand finale of the Indian Idol 12 on Sunday with Arunita Kanjilal and Sayli Kamble as runners-up.To celebrate the successful show, the makers have planned a 12-hour long finale. Starting 12 pm, the musical extravaganza with the six finalists - Pawandeep Rajan, Arunita Kanjilal, Nihal Tauro, Sayli Kamble, Mohd Danish and Shanmukhapriya enthralling the audience with their performances.

Apart from the ex-contestants, the 'Greatest Finale Ever' also saw several guests cheering the finalists. Shershaah actors Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani shot with the Indian Idol 12 team for the special episodes. Popular singers Javed Ali, Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik and Sukhvinder Singh also graced the stage.

To boost the contestants' confidence, south star Vijay Deverkonda sent a video message telling them how much he enjoys Indian Idol. Also, the Bade Achhe Lagte Hain 2 lead pair Nakuul Mehta and Disha Parmar made an appearance during the finale.

Earlier, talking exclusively to indianexpress.com, director Neeraj Sharma shared that the team is looking forward to creating history with Indian Idol Season 12. Stating that they always had 'big plans' for the finale, he said, "If there was no pandemic, we would have hosted the finale in a big stadium, and we are confident it would have been a sold-out show. This season has been loved so much and given it's the last episode, we wanted to do something really special, and thus the 12-hour episode came in place."

Talking about the season, the director further shared that even though it was the longest, they still feel that it could have run for a few more months. "The high ratings also prove that the audience is still hooked on to the show. This is going to be the last time they see their favourites perform, and we hope they really like the finale episode," added Neeraj.

While the team has already pre-recorded chunks of the long episode, the winner announcement happened live at midnight. The Greatest Grand Finale Ever saw Jay Bhanushali co-host the show with the original anchor Aditya Narayan. The current judges Anu Malik, Himesh Reshammiya and Sonu Kakkar also performed during Indian Idol 12 finale.