Reality Show : Mandd Sobhann, MCC Doha Present 'Soad -3' International

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Oct 19: In a bid to build bridges and establish greater cooperation and harmony between Konkani speaking people of Mangalore & Goa and of Mangalore & Qatar, MCC Qatar and Mandd Sobhann Mangalore have launched Soad – 3 International, a TV Konkani singing contest for Konkani speaking people.  The contest is keenly looked forward to by many aspirants in Mangalore, Goa and Qatar, to use it as a platform to showcase their singing talent.  

The contest is open to Konkani speaking people of Karnataka and Goa origin between the age of 15 and 45, irrespective of religion.   The shooting for the Mangalore preliminary rounds will be held on November 5 and 6th at Kalaangann and semifinals are slated for January 2012 for Mangalorean contestants.   The contest is organized to select the best male and female singers from among  Konkani speaking Mangaloreans and Goans in India and Qatar and  thel winners will be conferred with the titles ‘Rai Kogull - International’ and ‘Ranni Kogull-International’ respectively at the finals which will be held at Qatar in May 2012.  

Mandd Sobhann gurkar Eric Ozario speaking to daijiworld.com stated that Soad-3 Universal originally planned involving 10 gulf countries which was to be conducted by MCC Qatar and Mandd Sobhann was shelved due to certain developments that were not favorable to hold such a contest.  “Mandd Sobhann had conducted the first two contests locally and wanted to continue the same even this year.   Since MCC was part of the original contest, it was decided to continue their association with the competition  and MCC readily agreed to associate as sponsors and we came out with Soad-3 International”, Eric Ozario stated. 

In all there will be four preliminaries, 1  in Mangalore for Konkani speaking people of Karnataka living in Mangalore or anywhere in India and 1 in Goa for people of Goan origin living in Goa or anywhere in the country.  There will be 2 preliminaries in Qatar, 1 for the Konkani speaking people of Karnataka origin in Qatar and another    for Konkani speaking people of Goan origin in Qatar.   Each participant can take part in only one of the relevant preliminaries.  The best 12 from each of the 4 preliminaries, six female and male will qualify for the semifinals to be held one each in Mangalore, Goa and 2 in Qatar.  It will be a separate contest for Mangalorean and Goan qualifiers for the semifinals.  The top four winners of the semifinals (one female and male each from the four semifinals (total 8) will qualify for the finals.   However, in the finals to be held in Doha Qatar in May 2012 all the finalists will vie for top honours with one another. 

The contest which will be telecast by Tvdaijiworld- globally (Internet), Namma T V – in and around Mangalore and Channel 365 – in Goa, will be held in three rounds - preliminary rounds, semifinals and finals.  Eric Ozario feels that Soad – 3 International would enable Konkani language to get some footing in the electronic media in which it has a negligible presence.  “With this programme we want to create some presence for Konkani language in the electronic media and promote our language and culture.  We are a cultural organization and we are here to promote talent and this is a big opportunity for us to bring to the fore the singing talent”, Eric Ozario points out giving two reasons for coming out with Soad-3 international. 

In the preliminary round the contestants will have to sing one song (chorus-one-verse-chorus) of their choice.  There is no restriction on the selection of songs sung by the contestants.  Except in preliminary rounds, contestants are not allowed to repeat the song chosen to sing by other contestants in the same round.  In the semifinal rounds the contestants will have to sing 2 songs - one sentimental and one joyful so as to test their versatility and depth as singers. The finalists of the competition will be taken to Doha Qatar with all expenses paid by the organizers.

The final round will be a demanding one considering that the contest will be held in two stages.  In the first stage the finalists will have to sing two songs.  One solo which should be a Mandd Sobhann composition for Mangaloreans and a Chris Perry composition for Goans and a duet (male-female) along with    other co-finalist of the same semifinal.  At this stage best singers male/female   from Mangalore and from Goa will be declared.  Only these four will compete against each other in the second stage of the finals where they will sing one song of their choice and win the coveted titles of Ranni Kogull and Rai Kogull in the female and male category respectively.    The winners of Ranni/Rai Kogull will receive Rs. 1 lakh each and  all the four – the best  Mangalorean and Goan singers both female/male  would get Rs. 25,000/- each.

While the contest is primarily aimed to spot and encourage singing talent and also an attempt to make Konkani presence in the electronic media, the organizers believe that it would foster the spirit of bridging the gulf among the various Konkani speaking groups of Karnataka, Goa and other states.  Eric argues “we are talking about cultural unity but if we fall short of bridging unity at the local level we will fail miserably in our efforts.  We have made a sincere effort to close that gap and Soad-3 International is a step in that direction, a platform for Konkani speaking people to compete in the real spirit of enriching Konkani”.

Let us hope Soad-3 International will succeed in its mission and enspirit the Konkani speaking people in a big way. 

For application Form Click Here

Applications in the prescribed forms can be to mandd_sobhann@yahoo.com or can be posted to

Mandd Sobhann, Kalaangann, Makale, Shaktinagar,   Mangalore -575 016.