Meet Ananya Nanda, the winner of Indian Idol Junior 2015

Ananya Sritam Nanda, a 14 year old girl from Odisha won the prestigious Indian Idol Junior Season 2 competition afte defeating the last 2 finalists Nahid Afrin and Nithyashree Venkataramanan. Ananya hails from Bhubaneshwar in Orissa. She received the price money of total Rs 10 lakhs.

She is presently studying in Class 9th and after the end of all this glamour wishes to concentrate on her half yearly exams.

Watch Ananya Nanda perform during Indian Idol junior 2:

Speaking after winning the much coveted competition, Ananya said that she wishes to do playback for Bollywood actresses Sonakshi Sinha, Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma. She even mentioned about Preity Zinta and wanted to sing for her.

“This is the best moment of my life. I am speechless! With the mentoring and the training I have received, I am thankful to Indian Idol Junior. I think all my co-contestants deserve this trophy. I am really thankful to the viewers of Sony Entertainment Television for showering us with so much love and support. I am going to miss this platform, training, my friends, Sonakshi Ma’am, Vishal and Salim sir,” she was qupted saying in news reports.

Ananya Nanda is a fan of Shreya Ghoshal and Arijit Singh while she considers composer Anandji of the Kalyanji-Anandji duo as her lucky charm.

The grand finale of the show was star studded with all the three permanent judges including Sonakshi Sinha, Vishal Dadlani and Salim Merchant boosting the morale of the top three contenders.

Sonakshi performed on several popular numbers ‘Saree Ke Fall Sa,’ ‘Rani Tu Main Raja,’ ‘Pon Pon,’ “Tamanche Pe disco” and “Party All Night”. Sonakshi’s father and MP Shatrughan Sinha was also present during the finals. Vishal Dadlani too broke into a gig on his recent number ‘Haftey Mei Chaar’ from Abhishek Bachchan-Asin starrer ‘All Is Well’.

To add tinge of comedy to the show, noted Stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma performed on the sets. Sharma was there to promote his his debut film “Kis Kisko Pyar Karu”

Indian Idol Junior 2015, a Singing Reality show was kicked off in May along with 13 contestants who were selected from different parts of India. Every week, depending on their performances contestants got eliminated and finally only three were selected on the basis of the votes they garnered for the much-awaited grand finale of the show.

While Sonakshi Sinha was one of the star judges of the show, she was nowhere around after the declaration of results. Reports say that she had flown to Budapest for shooting of Force 2. “Sonakshi’s portions for the finale were shot on Saturday, but when the results were declared on Sunday, she was not around,” a leading tabloid quoted one of the insiders.