If you think music show maverick Gajendra Singh is likely to be daunted by the frontal attack by his former Zee channel bosses, you’re in for a surprise.

Singh continues to move ahead with his second show, a talent-scouting contest for STAR One, and also a brand new hush-hush show for NDTV’s new entertainment channel NDTV Imagine lead by Sameer Nair.

But the hurt shows when he talks.

“Zee has called me ungrateful. I gave them every ounce of my creative energy for 14 years. Why should I be considered ungrateful for moving on? Is it my fault that their attempts to sustain their music shows haven’t been successful after I left? They accuse me of copying Zee shows. Music is my only passion. I would naturally take my passion with me wherever I go.”

Zee’s declarations that the channel would do their best to stop Singh have shaken him somewhat, but left him more determined.

“Is this the way to treat me just because I’ve moved on? I’m not scared. In fact I’m more determined than ever to build my life again. My shows will continue to be different from what I did for Zee, and I’ll continue to fight their charges of duplication. I’ll also continue to do my shows.

“In my new talent-scouting contest, music composers Jatin Pandit and Aadesh Shrivastava will be training all the contestants before they come on air. I want the contest to be fully transparent. And I want to prove that I can grow beyond what I did at Zee. I repeat - I don’t have to copy shows that I gave birth to.

“Now Zee is telecasting repeats of my shows with my name deleted from the credits, replacing it with someone else’s name. Someone who joined Zee in 2005, after those repeated episodes had been made…. But I don’t want to fight the company that nurtured my talent. Injustice can never triumph.”

Gajendra has also been accused of carrying all the technicians from Zee to his news shows on STAR.

“Completely untrue,” protested Singh. “I left Zee all alone. And I plan to make a success of what I’m doing wherever I go.”

After two shows on STAR One, Gajendra is planning a musical show for NDTV Imagine. “It’s going to be a musical like none other.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 8:06 am and is filed under Bollywood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.