It was no less than a shot taken straight out of a reality show at the recently held film awards function. We are talking about singer Alka Yagnik, the judge for the category ‘New Musical Sensation - Male’, who announced in front of a packed amphitheatre that the award winner is not the ‘judges’ choice’. Said Alka on the stage, “People talk about how judges favour candidates on reality shows.

Let me tell you here that the winner ( Krishna who along with composer Salim Merchant sung Maula Meri Jaan from the film Chak De India) was not the judges’ (Alka and Pritam) choice. In fact, we had voted for another singer. But the sms votes of the audience went in favour of Krishna In the end, we decided to go with the audience.”

According to sources, Alka and Pritam had rooted for Shail for his stunning rendition of the title track of Saawariya and Alka was not pleased when Krishna’s name was announced as the winner. A stunned Krishna , who had come on stage to receive the award, hung his head in silence for a few seconds as Alka was saying these words on the microphone. When asked to acknowledge his award, he could barely manage a few lines. “I hope to be Alkaji’s choice next time,” said the singer with a wry smile.

A source said that apart from Shail Hada, Pritam and Alka had also voted for Soham for his soft rock number In Dino (scored by Pritam, of course) from Life In A Metro. He revealed, “Both Alka Yagnik and Pritam felt that there should be a toss-up between Shail Hada and Soham. Both were fresh voices and the songs were not just popular but also had an intrinsic class in them.” When contacted, Pritam chose to keep his displeasure to himself. He merely said, “We know what Alkaji said on stage. I don’t wish to add anything more to this.”