India Asks: "Sanjaya Who?"

So much for the Indian Call Center Theory: Under-talented singer Sanjaya Malakar's unlikely wave of "American Idol" support apparently isn't coming from his father's homeland.

Indians are usually attuned to the successes of their compatriots abroad. But apart from a few brief newspaper articles, at least one short TV news segment and a few blog mentions, the reedy 17-year-old with the unsteady voice is a virtual unknown here.

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One reason is that the show is broadcast a day late in India, and on an English-language channel that attracts relatively few viewers in this country of 1.1 billion.

"He's also an object of ridicule," said Amit Varma, who runs the popular India Uncut blog.

Malakar's success with viewers, who vote by phone or text message for their favorite performers, has come despite withering criticism from the three "Idol" judges. The irascible Simon Cowell has even threatened to quit if the native of Federal Way, Wash., wins the contest.

Malakar survived elimination on Wednesday night to make it to the final eight. If he can hold on for a few more weeks, he might see his fame spread here, Varma said.

"Even if the guy's really an American, it will be projected by the media here as an Indian doing well in the world," he said. "They'll make a big deal about it."

As for the theory that Indian call center operators are phoning in votes for Malakar: Most workers have calls automatically dialed for them by computers. They couldn't even call next door if they wanted to.

[kevzgrl]

I haven't figured out yet if the majority of people who are voting for this kid are just looking at his face/hair, are stupid or completely tone-deaf, or a combination. Or all three, come to think of it. I feel Simon on this one - I will never watch the show again if this farce goes on to the end. Melinda has the most talent and stage presence of any of them, and SHE should be the next AI - not this little teenybopper wanna be star.

[jsilver2th]

The post by HypnoToad72 below is a good example of the hate & racism aimed at Sanjaya- what does some Indians working contracor jobs and supposedly hurting America have to do with Sanjaya?

Sanjaya is a born in the good old USA American citizen and beyond that he's half-Italian.

Do you read Sanjaya Italian ridicule? Does the media talk about the Italian voting conspiracies?

No... because they don't want to hate on Italians- they're white like us-- let's hate on Indians!

[jsilver2th]

Sanjaya ROCKS!

Thanks for busting the Indian Voting Conspiracy myth.

There is so much racial hatred and bigotry being aimed at this young man...

I heard about Howard Stern & Vote for the Worst so I checked it out only to find that the evil Sanjaya is this typical high school kid from Seattle who sings in the church choir, dances the hula and makes crazy videos with gummi bears...

Then you read it's all a big Indian Pakistanti G a y terrorist plot and now his fans FAMJAYAS are a cult and he is the anti-christ.... I've read posts where the writers obviously don't know the difference between India and Pakistan...

What's more amazing is the terrible Sanjaya can really rock. has a lot of soul and has his own fan base that includes many beyond the teeny bopppers. He's not even close to the "worst." Howard Stern shame on you for putting all of the haters on Sanjaya.

Sanjaya ROCK ON

[zertrat]

Farah Fawcett's love son!