Ever since he entered the fray, the little, chubby boy is on a roll. Meet 11-year-old Aryan Das, who has crooned his way to the Top-10 of Sony’s Indian Idol Junior reality show. Now a household name, Aryan impressed the judges and made a place of his own on the show after the Kolkata auditions by singing ‘Naino Ki Mat Manio Re’.
Initiated into the world of music by parents Debashish Das and Swetalina, a trained singer, Aryan’s potential was channelised in the right direction from the beginning. He started learning from masters in music like Anil Jena, Pradeep Patra and Sarada Prasanna Sahoo, also from Cuttack since he was four years old.
“When he was one-year-old, he showed an inclination towards music. His favourite song has been Lakadi Ki Kathi and he used to listen to it every now and then. Once we were travelling to Dhenkanal and the music system in our car broke down. To our surprise, Aryan sang the complete song throughout the journey. It was here that we decided to professionally train him in music,” says Debashis, who works as a research assistant in Ravenshaw University.
First stage show
In fact, his first stage show was at the age of four when he sang in front of a crowd of 1,000 people during an event at Mayfair, Bhubaneswar.
At the age of six, Aryan released his first solo album of eight songs on Hanuman Chalisa through World Music for which, he subsequently received the prestigious Uday Bhanu Puraskar.
Prior to his stint with Indian Idol Junior, he had tried his hands at Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs at the age of 10 which, he could only qualify till the regional auditions at Kolkata.
“During my auditions for Indian Idol Junior, I had butterflies in my stomach. But the three judges made the studio so homely that I felt comfortable and relaxed within minutes. They told me it’s just a matter of getting into the groove of the music,” says this Class VI student of LR DAV Public School, Cuttack. His favourite judge in the show? “Shreya Ghoshal,” he quips. “She and Sonu Nigam are my favourite singers actually.”
Performances
A recognised artiste of All India Radio (AIR) as a child artiste, he has also done playback singing for several Odia films. Aryan had won the Akhaya Mohanty Samman at the age of 10. Apart from performing ‘bhajans’ at devotional programmes in Odisha, Aryan had sung Sai bhajans at the Mukha Darshan Mandap of the Sai temple in Shirdi.
Aryan likes making new friends, drawing, playing cricket and watching cartoons. “I like watching Ben Ten and Spiderman,” he says. The young singer is a good student as well. For, he has been a State-level champion of National Cyber Olympiad (NCO) for two years and even qualified for the NCO at international level.
Experience so far
Speaking about the experience at the Indian Idol Junior, Aryan says he is lucky to be in a platform like this. “I am learning a lot from here and it is more like a family now,” he says.
And what does he plan if he wins the Indian Idol Junior title? “I want to gift my father a Royal Enfield bullet and also take both my parents on a world tour,” Aryan smiles.
When he grows up, he wants to become a pediatrician. “I will sing songs to the little kids who are scared of injections. If not a doctor, I want to be an IAS officer and also continue with my singing,” he says.