Reality check: Life after reality shows

Talent hunt shows might be regarded as a short cut to success. But it is a quick reality check and you'll discover that winning these competitions doesn't quite make you the winner in the long run. For some, it even meant giving up singing.

Abhijit Sawant

Abhijit Sawant winner of Indian Idol, kick started with a contract worth Rs 1 crore with Sony. While his first album, 2005's Aapka Abhijit was a success, his second album in 2007 Junoon was anything but that.

Now, Abhijeet is all set to make his Bollywood debut with a low budget film called Lottery and his dream of becoming a popular playback singer is just that a dream.

Debojit

Sa Ra Ga Ma Pa's winner Debojit started on the right note but eventually ended up being a contestant in another reality show Bigg Boss.

Aneek Dhar

Kolkata's Aneek Dhar won the second season of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and came out with a successful album called Khwahishein.

But now he's limited to singing for regional films in West Bengal.

Ravi Shukla

Similar is the fate of Ravi Shukla, winner of season two of Voice of India who failed to make any impact on the national level.

Sandeep Acharya and Prashant Tamang

As for Indian Idol's other two winners, Sandeep Acharya and Prashant Tamang, well, they came, they saw, they conquered and eventually lost out.

Tamang, a policeman from Darjeeling, is still one of the most popular names in the Northeast but his CV has only one solo album to boast of.

And then there are those who didn't win the titles but are far more popular names in the industry today.

Monali Thakur an Indian Idol participant was picked up by Pritam and went on to gave hits like Zara Zara and Khaab dekhey jhoote mootey from Race.

And Naresh Iyer who could not impress the judges of Super Singer but instead he caught A R Rahman's attention and now has a national award under his belt for the song Roobaru from Rang De Basanti.

Indian Idol contestants, Amit Tandon and Rahul Vaidya, might not be known as singers but they are popular faces on TV.

While Amit was seen in the series Saath Saath, Rahul anchored reality show Jhoom India.