By Subhash K Jha

If we had any doubts about ours being a nation of singers, hear this: Zee TV's new music show Little Champs, devoted to promoting young singing talent, got 1 lakh entries from four major cities.

Says the new talent-hunt show's producer-director Gajendra Singh, "We conducted auditions judged by our 3-member panel of Abhijeet, Alka Yagnik and Bappi lahiri, in four cities Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Lucknow.

Believe me, we came across astonishing singing talent. Out of the 1 lakh entries 98 percent of the young singers from the age-group of 8 to 14, were trained singers who have learnt classical singing from a guru or a skilled tutor.

Ask anyof these youngsters to sing a dadra or a thumri and they break into a snatch spontaneously." Out of the 1 lakh entries the three judges have now chosen 20 contestants who will now be whittled down 10 finalists to next week.

"We'll choose our Little Champ in 16 weeks. The little singers are phenomenal!" says judge Bappi Lahiri.

Then how do we explain the acute paucity of genuine singing talent in the film industry?

And do young singing wonders grow up to be disappointments? Hemant Kumar Mukherjee's daughter Ranu Mukherjee, Bappi Lahiri's daughter Reema, composer Laxmikant's daughter Rajeshwari, Anuradha Paudwal's daughter Kavita Paudval are some young singing sensations who haven't made much headway.

"That's because they exhaust themselves too fast by over-doing it. Whoever will be our Young Champ will be given the room to bloom effortlessly," promises Gajendra Singh whose triumphant singing-jodi Aishwarya-Ujjaini on Ek Main Aur Ek Tu have just made a together appearance in Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate.