Young talent vie for their shot at glory

The mall audition is always the most important date on the OPPO Times Fresh Face Calendar, as it gives youngsters who missed a chance in their colleges and those from institutes that we did not visit, an opportunity to prove their mettle. It is no wonder, then, that close to 50 talents lined up for their shot at glory as team Bangalore Times and celebrity judge, actor and TV host Akul Balaji headed to
the Forum Mall, Koramangala to pick a bunch of fresh faces.
Over four hours, the participants, especially the girls, put up scintillating displays of song, dance, beat boxing, karate chops and freestyle football tricks among others, which made Akul’s job of narrowing down the playing field for the next round all the more difficult. After much deliberation, eight girls and six boys were chosen to advance to the Q&A round, which is a measure of their confidence and spontaneity. And boy, was Akul a task master. From making a contestant create a sales pitch for a fictitious brand of shampoo, to asking some who had sung in the talent round to dance to impromptu music, and a beat boxing show off between two contestants, it was quite the fun round.
With each participant trying to establish an edge, the task of figuring it out the winners was tougher than expected. Ibrahim Khaleel Khan’s (St Joseph’s College) rendition of Gulabi Aankhen and his cool persona worked in his favour, as he was adjudged winner in the boys category, while Anchal NG’s (Christ University) acrobatic moves, including a one-handed cartwheel, to Despacito, sealed the deal for her. The multi-talented Nauman Sait (Jain College) began by showing off his dance skills, but his beat boxing caught everyone’s attention, especially after a duel with Rishabh Shah, and he was declared the first runner-up. Clad in a nice black number, Vaishnavi Srivatsa (BMS College of Engineering) surprised the judges with her talent — classical music. Her flawless rendition propelled her to the first runner-up position.
Likith Naidu’s penchant for delivering punch lines from Kannada films got him the second runner-up position. Torn between several candidates among the girls, Akul eventually awarded two of them the opportunity to advance to the semi-final of the contest by declaring Medha Vidhyabhushan from Sri Kumarans Pre University College and Shalini Menon from Deeksha PU College joint second runners-up.