| Indian Idol | |
|---|---|
| Season 16 | |
 | |
| Hosted by |
|
| Judges | |
| No. of contestants | 16 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Sony Entertainment Television |
| Original release | 18 October 2025 – present |
| Season chronology | |
The sixteenth season of Indian Idol premiered on 18 October 2025, on Sony Entertainment Television. Shreya Ghoshal [2] , Vishal Dadlani and Badshah returned from season 15 as judges. The theme of this season was "Yaadon Ki Playlist"[ needs translation ]. [3] [4] [5]
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]
| City | Audition date | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Kolkata, West Bengal | 26 July 2025 | SPK Jain Futuristic Institute, New Town |
| New Delhi | 17 August 2025 | Central Academy School, Sector 10, Dwarka |
| Mumbai, Maharashtra | 24 August 2025 | Pawar Public School |
To mark 20 years of Indian Idol, the platinum mic was continued from the previous season that guarantees the contestant a position in Top 15. The platinum mics were given to Diwakar Choubey, Manraj Veer, Abhishek Kumar and Anshika Chonkar. Golden tickets were continued, and were given 25 in total.[ citation needed ]
The Theatre round featured the top 25 golden ticket holder contestants performing for the judges. This round was filmed on X, at the Lata Mangeshkar Auditorium, and aired on 1 and 2 November 2025.[ citation needed ] The judges then narrowed the number of contestants down to 16, including the platinum mic holders.
The contestants performed in batches, as picked by the judges according to genre.
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. |
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The contestant who made past the theater round or got the platinum mic in the auditions, are listed below as follows: [8]
| Contestant | Status |
|---|---|
| Abhijit Sharma | |
| Abhishek Kumar | |
| Amritha Rajan | |
| Ankita Pradhan | |
| Anshika Chonkar | |
| Arfin Rana | |
| Banashree Bishwas | |
| Diwakar Choubey | |
| Jyotirmayee Nayak | |
| Manav | |
| Manraj Veer | |
| Shreenidhi Shastry | |
| Shreya Verma | |
| Sugandha Date | |
| Suhail | |
| Tanishk Shukla |
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. |
There was no public voting this week and the performance did not count in the competition. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
| Contestant | Song |
|---|---|
| Arfin Rana | "Ek Sanam Chahiye Aashiqui Ke Liye" |
| Anshika Chonkar | "Rangeela Re" |
| Manraj Veer | "Ruk Ja O Dil Deewane" |
| Diwakar Choubey | "Chaiyya Chaiyya" |
| Abhishek Kumar | "Tadap Tadap" |
| Shreya Verma | "Tare Hain Barati" |
| Abhijit Sharma | "Yeh Dil Deewana" |
| Sugandha Date | "Morni Baga Ma Bole" |
| Jyotirmayee Nayak | "Tera Naam Rakh Liya" |
| Amritha Rajan | "Kehna Hi Kya" |
| Manav | "Ishq di galli vich dolna" |
| Tanishk Shukla | "Deewana Tera" |
| Shreenidhi Shastry | "Tum Dil ki Dhadkan Mein" |
| Suhail | "Mera Piya Ghar Aaya O Ramji" |
| Ankita Pradhan | "Tu Shayyar Hai, Mai Teri Shaayari" |
| Banashree Bishwas | "Pardesi Pardesi Jaana Nahin" |
Special guests: Sukhwinder Singh, Urmila Matondkar, Jaspinder Narula, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Hans Raj Hans [ citation needed ]
This week was divided into two themes
Night 1: Gustakh Ishq special
Special guests: Manish Malhotra, Vijay Varma, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Shilpa Rao, Papon [ citation needed ]
Night 2: Rock-On with Farhan
Special guests: Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, Honey Irani, Shibani Akhtar, Raashii Khanna [ citation needed ]
This week was the first public voting week of the season. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
| Contestant | Performed on | Song |
|---|---|---|
| Arfin Rana | Night 1 | "Mere Naam Tu" |
| Manraj Veer | "Zara Sa" & "Khuda Jaane" (With Shilpa Rao) | |
| Anshika Chonkar | "Desi Girl" | |
| Diwakar Choubey | "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain" | |
| Banashree Bishwas | "Tujhe Yaad Na Meri Aayee" | |
| Suhail | "Mere Rashke Kamar" | |
| Ankita Pradhan | "Aaj Ki Raat" | |
| Shreya Verma | "Darling" | |
| Jyotirmayee Nayak | "Moh Moh Ke Dhaage" | |
| Shreenidhi Shastry | Night 2 | "Lakshya" |
| Abhijit Sharma | "Señorita" | |
| Tanishk Shukla | "Tanhayee" | |
| Sugandha Date | "Sajana Ji Vaari Vaari" | |
| Amritha Rajan | "Tum Ho Toh" & "Socha Hai" | |
| Abhishek Kumar | "O Rangrez" | |
| Manav | "Slow Motion Angreza" |
This week was the first judges' score week and the first elimination took place on basis of last week's votes and this week's scores.
Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
| Contestant | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Abhijit Sharma | ||
| Abhishek Kumar | ||
| Amritha Rajan | ||
| Ankita Pradhan | ||
| Anshika Chonkar | ||
| Arfin Rana | ||
| Banashree Bishwas | ||
| Diwakar Choubey | ||
| Jyotirmayee Nayak | ||
| Manav | ||
| Manraj Veer | ||
| Shreenidhi Shastry | ||
| Shreya Verma | ||
| Sugandha Date | ||
| Suhail | ||
| Tanishk Shukla |
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.
| Contestant | Place | Top 29 | Top 16 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theatre | Gala 2+3 | |||||||
| 1/11 | 2/11 | 15/11–23/11 | ||||||
| Abhijit Sharma | N/A | Safe | ||||||
| Abhishek Kumar | N/A | |||||||
| Amritha Rajan | Safe | |||||||
| Ankita Pradhan | Safe | |||||||
| Anshika Chonkar | N/A | |||||||
| Arfin Rana | Safe | |||||||
| Banashree Bishwas | Safe | |||||||
| Diwakar Choubey | N/A | |||||||
| Jyotirmayee Nayak | N/A | Safe | ||||||
| Manav | Safe | |||||||
| Manraj Veer | N/A | |||||||
| Shreenidhi Shastry | Safe | |||||||
| Shreya Verma | N/A | Safe | ||||||
| Sugandha Date | N/A | Safe | ||||||
| Suhail | N/A | Safe | ||||||
| Tanishk Shukla | N/A | Safe | ||||||
| Aakarshit Wadhwan | N/A | Eliminated | ||||||
| Aaroh Shankar | N/A | Eliminated | ||||||
| Dharmesh Nayat | N/A | Eliminated | ||||||
| Vishwanath Haveri | N/A | Eliminated | ||||||
| Vishal Mattu | N/A | Eliminated | ||||||
| Hrishikesh Karmarkar | N/A | Eliminated | ||||||
| Sankalp Yaduwanshi | N/A | Eliminated | ||||||
| Jayanti Dutta | N/A | Eliminated | ||||||
| Anurag Bhattacharya | Eliminated | |||||||
| Tabish Ali | Eliminated | |||||||
| Kalyan Sahay | Eliminated | |||||||
| Parinay Jain | Eliminated | |||||||
| Lakshya Mehta | Eliminated | |||||||
The project head for the season was Chitra Langeh, and Akash Tiwari wasagain joining the head of production. Pratyush Prakash was 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 the executive producer of the series. The season was directed by Saahil Chhabria. Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited took the whole charge again. [6]