Remote auditions took place from 26 July to 24 August 2025, as well as a number of open-call auditions, and from these, the producers selected the contestants who were then invited to audition in front of the judges.[6]
Filming does not take place until the judges' audition round. This year also, the auditions were filmed at the Mukesh Mills warehouse. For the first time in Indian Idol's history, outdoor auditions were conducted.
To mark 20 years of Indian Idol, The platinum mic was continued from the previous season, that guarantees the contestant a position in Top 16. Each judge could give only 1 platinum mic. The golden tickets were continued and was given to 25 contestants. The platinum mics were given to Diwakar Choubey, Manraj Veer and Abhishek Kumar. But during the auditions, The judges broke the rule and the 4th platinum mic was given to Anshika Chonkar.
This season also, the judges were given headphones to hear the raw voice of singers, without any instruments and processing.
Theatre round
The Theatre round featured the top 25 golden ticket holder contestants performing for the judges. This year also, The theatre round was filmed on X, at the Lata Mangeshkar Auditorium and will air on 1 and 2 November 2025. The judges then narrowed the number of contestants down to 16, including the platinum mic holders. This year also, the contestants performed in batches, as picked by the judges according to genre. The batch maybe of two, three or even one and their fate depends on the judges' verdict.
The following is a list of the contestants and the song they performed. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
Color key:
This contestant advanced to top 16.
This contestant was eliminated.
Day 1 - 1 November 2025
Sl.No
Contestant
Age
From
Batch No.
Song
Result
1
Ankita Pradhan
16
Purba Medinipur
1
"Aao Na Gale Laga Lo Na"
Top 16
2
Amritha Rajan
29
Kochi
2
"Kay Sera Sera"
Top 16
3
Banashree Bishwas
17
Raiganj
3
"Ab Ke Sajan Sawaan Mein"
Top 16
4
Shreenidhi Shastry
22
Bengaluru
"Ay Hairathe"
Top 16
5
Arfin Rana
27
Kolkata
"Jaane Kya Jaane Mann"
Top 16
6
Tabish Ali
22
Muzaffarnagar
4
"Tumhe Dillagi Bhul Jani Padegi"
On Hold
7
Manav
23
Batala
"Mast Kalandar"
On Hold
8
Lakshya Mehta
23
Amritsar
5
"Bheege Hont Tere"
Eliminated
9
Parinay Jain
22
Jaipur
6
Tumhe Jo Maine Dekha
On Hold
10
Kalyan Sahay
28
Jaipur
Yeh Dil Tum Bin Kahin Lagta Nahi
On Hold
11
Anurag Bhattacharya
25
Faridabad
Megha Re Megha Re
On Hold
Day 2- 2 November 2025
Sl.No
Contestant
Age
From
Batch No.
Song
Result
1
Vishwanath Haveri
21
Dharwad
7
2
Sugandha Date
21
Mumbai
8
3
Aakarshit Wadhwan
20
Amritsar
9
4
Dharmesh Nayat
29
Jaipur
10
5
Aaroh Shankar
25
Mumbai
11
6
Vishal Mattu
29
Kapurthala
12
7
Shreya Verma
14
Delhi
13
8
Hrishikesh Karmarkar
27
Nagpur
14
9
Suheil
18
Delhi
15
10
Tanishk Shukla
26
Jabalpur
16
11
Jyotirmayee Nayak
24
Bhubaneswar
17
12
Sankalp Yaduwanshi
25
Bhopal
18
13
Abhijit Sharma
17
Ambala
19
14
Jayanti Dutta
23
Kolkata
20
Top 16 contestants
The contestant who made past the theater round or got the platinum mic in the auditions, are listed below as follows:
Contestant
Age
From
Status
Abhishek Kumar
23
Jabalpur
Amritha Rajan
29
Kochi
Ankita Pradhan
16
Purba Medinipur
Anshika Chonkar
21
Mumbai
Arfin Rana
27
Kolkata
Banashree Bishwas
17
Raiganj
Diwakar Choubey
23
Gurgaon
Manraj Veer
25
Delhi
Shreenidhi Shastry
22
Bengaluru
Gala rounds
After the theater round, every week all the contestants performing in the gala and are eliminated on a weekly basis.
The gala rounds were filmed at the P3 Infotech Film Studio.
Colour Key:
This contestant was saved by the judges' scores.
This contestant was in the bottom two or three as per judges scores.
This contestant was eliminated.
This contestant won Indian Idol.
This contestant was the runner-up.
This contestant finished in third place.
This contestant finished in fourth place.
This contestant finished in sixth place.
Contestant
Song
Status
Abhishek Kumar
Anshika Chonkar
Diwakar Choubey
Manraj Veer
Ankita Pradhan
Amritha Rajan
Banashree Bishwas
Shreenidhi Shastry
Arfin Rana
Elimination chart
Like last season, this season too, bi-weekly eliminations were held. One week public votes, next week, judges' scores. The bottom contestants are decided according to the judges' scores from that week, and the person with lowest votes from last week is eliminated.
Winner
Runner-up
Third place
Fourth place
Sixth place
Did not perform
Saved by the judges scores
Bottom two or three
Eliminated
Indian Idol season 16 – Eliminations
Contestant
Pl.
Top 29
Theatre
1/11
2/11
Abhishek
N/A
Anshika
N/A
Diwakar
N/A
Manraj
N/A
Amritha
Safe
N/A
Ankita
Safe
N/A
Banashree
Safe
N/A
Shreenidhi
Safe
N/A
Arfin
Safe
N/A
Aakarshit
N/A
Aaroh
N/A
Dharmesh
N/A
Manav
N/A
Sugandha
N/A
Vishwanath
N/A
Vishal
N/A
Shreya
N/A
Hrishikesh
N/A
Suheil
N/A
Tanishk
N/A
Jyotirmayee
N/A
Anurag
N/A
Tabish
N/A
Sankalp
N/A
Abhijit
N/A
Jayanti
N/A
Parinay
Eliminated
Kalyan
Lakshya
Reception and ratings
Production
The project head for the season was Chitra Langeh, and Akash Tiwari once again joining as the head of production. Pratyush Prakash was once again the writer of the series. Music guidance and music band were headed by Anand Sharma and Randeep Bhaskar. Aradhana Bhola, the managing director of FremantleIndia was once again the executive producer of the series. The season was directed by Saahil Chhabria.Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited took the whole charge again.[6]
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