With the new "Challenge" series, Zee TV brought 48 potential singers that are living in India.
The process had started with elimination rounds by the four mentors: Aadesh Shrivastava, Himesh Reshammiya, Jatin–Lalit and Ismail Darbar.
Neeta Pandey, Nakash Aziz, Manjeera Ganguly, Paresh Madhaparia, Joyeeta Sen, Mukesh, Shoumi Roy, and Rajeev Thapa competed.
Sagar Tildurkar, V. Hemabindu, Vishwas Rai, Banjyotsna, Sharib Sabri, Prachi Singla, Hemachandra, and Jolly competed.
Shivani, Niladri Debnath, Rimi Chopra, Nanu Gurjar, Nihira Joshi, Akhilesh, Swananda Karmarkar, and Kaushik competed.
Piyashi, Aishwarya Nigam, Sinchan Dixit, Jai Prasad, Twinkle Bajpai, Bhumik Shah, Supriya Joshi, and Pramod Tripathi competed.
Abhijeet Ghoshal, Sanchali Chatterjee, Chirag Panchal, Soma Bhattacharya, Sandeep Batraa, Sayali Joshi, Vishwanath Batunge, and Himani Kapoor competed.
From the final 32 round onwards, guest judges like Shiv, Hari, Pandit Jasraj, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Alka Yagnik, Jagjit Singh etc.
The 32 remaining contestants were put into different Gharanas (or groups, led by a "magical mentor", one of the 4 judges).
The only three contestants to have gone through the perfect green card on first day pattern were Vineet Singh, Hemachandra, and Nihira Joshi.
This was a wildcard round, where winners of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa shows from years past would be able to perform.
Debojit Saha, Prashant, Saptak Bhattacharjee, and Vineet Singh all performed as a part of this.
Bhumik, Banjyotsna, Rajeev, Niladri, Twinkle, and Hemabindu, who got yellow cards yesterday, competed to save themselves from elimination.
Today, Ujjaini, Sharib, Joyeeta, Anindita, Irfan, and Vishwanath—all the yellow cardholders from yesterday—competed to avoid elimination.
Along with Abhijeet, Keka, Paresh, Vineeta, Aishwarya, and Priyani all got yellow cards and competed in the elimination round that Friday.
Among the two remaining competitors, Alka said that Vineeta had a powerful voice but it was evident that she was very tense and nervous, and that Priyani's throw needs to be improved.
Jatin–Lalit said that Manjeera had the disadvantage of starting first and that Raktima came in when the tempo was already set, but Aadesh said that this can't be the excuse after several practices.
Among the boys, Debojit was shown the green card, but Nanu was promised a song in Himesh's next album.
Group 3 had its second elimination round, with Himani, Ujjaini, Sharib, Joyeeta, Vineet, and Irfan competing.
Lalit said Irfan had improved much and Ismail is working hard but said that he was wondering initially, when the song started, whose version he was singing.
Aadesh said that Joyeeta's was a very simple song where there is hardly any possibility of an error, but she made those and was off target from the very beginning.
Ismail congratulated Himesh for choosing a song which is not suited to Joyeeta's voice, so considering that, he said she sang well.
As for Joyeeta, he said that she should not take the mentors' comments personally as they all consider her like their daughter and expect a lot from her and want her to improve.
A big fight between the judges ensued after this, stalling shooting and cancelling the second round of the elimination as a result.
All four were given green cards and nobody was eliminated, as the mentors were busy fighting amongst themselves and were asked to leave the shooting so they could announce results.
Ismail focused on Hemachandra's sister, Hemabindu, being eliminated some weeks ago, and told him to bring more sorrow into his singing during training.
Jatin–Lalit said that Keka initially used to sing Richa Sharma-style songs but now Aadesh has changed her voice completely (it was meant as a compliment).
Daler, luckily, did not fight, and said that contestants should follow these great singers but evolve your own identity, targeted at Keka.
When asked why, Vishwas said that they are very close and since the day Vineet found out that he has to compete with his big brother, he has been upset.
Ujjaini was crying because she had dropped a year in studies to come here and not chosen science stream even though she had good marks because she wanted to be a singer.