The semi final and final episodes of CLOSE UP PERFORMER being shown on Doordarshan at 10pm on Mondays, was recently shot at Concorde Studio in Mumbai. Semi-final of the show was RAAZ special with Director Mahesh Bhatt, actors Emraan Hashmi, Adhyan Suman and writer Shagufta as celebrity judges. The final episode had Raju Shrivastava and Sadhna Sargam as celebrity judges. Raju Shrivastava had the audience as well as musicians, anchors and judges in splits with his jokes and tongue-in-cheek comments. The semi final will be shown today(19th January, 2009) whereas final will be telecast on 9th February, 2009. It will be interesting to see out of 12 contestants, who will be the winner of Close-up Performer as all of them are highly talented singers.

ABOUT CLOSE-UP PERFORMER

A Real 'REALITY' talent-hunt MUSICAL SHOW – inspired by Shri Ravindra Jain and piloted by Deevya R. Jain, Creative Director. Ace composer cum lyricist Shri Ravindra Jain conjures up many memories of sensuous, ever-green and ever-lasting tunes he gave to Hindi film music. More, he has given multiple talents to the music world in the form of Yesudas, Suresh Wadkar, Jaspal Singh, Hemlata & Aarti Mukherjee to name a few in the last 30 years. It's therefore only fitting that 'CLOSE-UP PERFORMER' chose Ravindra Jain as the shows mascot and piloting the event to bring to the fore singing talents from various parts of the country.

The Close-up research team and its judges laboriously heard singers from all parts of the land and selected 100 singers in Mumbai. A huge set-up of Close-up Performer has been erected in Mumbai where 30 participants in 6 groups will showcase their singing skills - in different segments - week-by-week. The winning singers are assured of singing assignments in movies and tele films assures Mr.Jain whose D.R. Productions is piloting the project.

The judges on the panel are :1. Mr.Ravindra Jain 2. Mr.Shravan {both composers} and 3. Ms. Madhushree {well known singer}. The Close-up Performer show is planned to be a delightful and mesmerizing musical event providing a whiff of fresh fragrance to the music world in the form of talented singers who remain 'un-discovered' to this day. The musical content is a honest and sincere effort to enchant music lovers with passionate music which is closer to the heart. It will be a riveting, engrossing and enjoyable fare promises Ravindra Jain. After giving us great songs from films such as Chitchor, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Saudagar, Geet gaata chal and in popular tele-serials we have reasons to believe the words of Ravindra Jain. The anchors of the programme are : Mr.Ravi Tripathi and Ms. Neha Kakkar.