Odisha Sun Times Entertainment Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 6:

Odisha’s teenage sensation Ananya Sritam Nanda easily brushed off the feeble challenge from Nahid Afrin and Nithyashree Venkataramanan in an all-girls Grand Finale to emerge the winner of the India Idol Junior Season II on Sunday night.

Pic Courtesy: www.skjbollywoodnews.com Pic Courtesy: www.skjbollywoodnews.com

As the winner, Ananya, who was eliminated in the first round of the contest last year, has taken home a trophy and a contract worth Rs.1 million from the channel.

Besides, she also received a host of other prizes from sponsors of the highly popular show on Sony TV.

The Bhubaneswar girl becomes the second Odia after Rituraj Mohanty to win a major national level reality show in the recent past. Mohanty had won India’s Raw Star a few months ago.

She danced on "Sari ke fall sa", "Rani tu mein raja", "Tamanchey pe disco", "Sawaar loon", "Party all night" and "Har kisiko nahi milta".

The night also saw some dazzling performance by the judges. While Salim Merchant was not part of the finale, the multi-talented Vishal Dadlani of Vishal-Shekhar composer duo, belted out some of his hit tracks, and first-time judge and Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha lit up the stage with her dance performance.

Sonakshi was in for a surprise when her father and veteran actor Shatrughan landed on the show's set and interacted with the contestants and encouraged them.

Powerhouse performer Kapil Sharma, who came on the finale to promote his forthcoming movie "Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon", left the audience in splits with his humorous antics.

The finale was also enlivened by the performances of the top 13 contestants, who were handpicked from multi-city auditions across the country.

publive-imageAnanya’s victory was widely anticipated after the gifted Vaishnav Girish was eliminated on Saturday in a decision that stunned both the audience and the judges.

Spontaneous celebrations broke out in Bhubaneswar, Ananya’s home town, minutes after she was anointed the winner of the Indian Idol Junior Season II with rank strangers congratulating each other as it they knew each other for ages.

Some took to the social media to express their joy and congratulate the wonder girl. “We are proud of her,” said Pranab Patjoshi on Facebook. “We are proud of her performance. Thanx God,” gushed Surya Chandra Raj. “I and my family voted for her whole day and night. I congratulate her for her win,” said Rupashree Mohapatra. “Jay Jagannath, Jay Odia,” said Sanjay Majhi

Ananya, a student of Pokhariput DAV School in Bhubaneswar, has her own fan page where about 24,000 fans ‘like’ her and she keeps them posted about her performances.

Ananya, who wants to become a scientist, won hearts of all the judges and the audiences with her dedication and sincerity towards her passion of singing. Her mother is a housewife and father works as a director in a government industrial department.

Ananya, whose favourite singers are Shreya Ghoshal and Arijit Singh, also likes to play the harmonium.

The second season of Indian Idol Junior commenced from May 30, 2015 on Sony TV.

The show was hosted by Hussain Kuwajerwala, co-hosted by Asha Negi and is being judged by Hindi movie actress Sonakshi Sinha along with Vishal Dadlani, Shalmali Kholgade and Salim Merchant. Sonakshi, who was away from the show due to her stage shows abroad was back in the judging panel this week adding glamour to the show.