IFTA is India’s 1st people’s Choice Awards, with an aim to acknowledge and acclaim the versatile talent in the Indian Film, Television, OTT and Music industries.
Team IFTA believes that there is no better judge than the audience. So IFTA gave the voting rights to the ultimate consumers of the content – the viewers. There is no jury or panel involved in making the decision for the winner.
IFTA has a dedicated market research team that works diligently to find the potential list of nominees who then compete to win the particular category. Spread across various categories, the IFTA market research team makes nomination lists based on primary & secondary market research and analysis. These lists are then made public for the audience to vote. The Nominee getting the highest number of votes wins that particular award category.
About the Instagram Poll Challenge
Besides online public voting, IFTA has introduced the Instagram Poll Challenge for the very first time.
To make this challenge functional, an Instagram story was put on the official Instagram page of IFTA, informing the viewers about respective Award category and whom they’d want to see as the Poll Challengers. For example, the Instagram story for this particular category would say: “Nominate a Male Playback Singer for the Poll Challenge”. Based on the audience’s reaction, the top four names that pop up the maximum number of times, make it to become the final four Poll Challengers.
These Poll Challengers then compete through three different rounds of Instagram Poll Challenges. If a Poll Challenger:
1. Wins 1 out of the 3 poll challenges, then the Winner gets 10% bonus votes of his total votes on IFTA voting site.
2. Wins 2 out of the 3 poll challenges, then the Winner gets 15% bonus votes of his total votes on IFTA voting site.
3. Wins all the 3 poll challenges, then the Winner gets 20% bonus votes of his total votes on IFTA voting site.
The IFTA voting site only allowed for the Voters with Indian Phone numbers to Vote. Due to this reason, the Instagram poll challenge was introduced to give International Fans an opportunity to Vote for their favourite celebrity.
Time to Announce the Winner
He is not just a great singer but one of the most beloved singing icons in the nation. Ever since he made his first appearance in a show called Raw Star India, his popularity went sky high. With 3084 including 15% Bonus votes from two Instagram Poll Challenges, Darshan Raval secured the first position to Win the award for the Most Popular Male Playback Singer for his song Kabhi Tumhe from Shershaah. The song perfectly encapsulates the separation of two lovers who live far away from each other. Darshan Raval lent a very melodious voice to this one.
The second position is secured by the sensational Arijit Singh with 1823 votes for Rait Zara Si from Atrangi Re. A.R. Rahman’s composition and Arijit Singh’s voice, what more could the album of this film ask for? The song became an instant blockbuster as soon as it came out. That humming in the beginning successfully spread its magical spell.
Jubin Nautiyal ranks third with 765 votes for Raataan Lambiyan from Shershaah. Jubin’s magical voice was applauded immensely for this song, which gave love goals to the nation and became an instant hit.
Some Honourable Mentions
At number four is Armaan Malik for Tum Aaoge from Bell Bottom with 669 votes. Armaan has a very soulful voice that multiplexes the impact of this song.
The following runner-ups include Arijit Singh for Lehra Do, Millind Gaba for Main Teri Hogyi, B.Praak for Ranjha and A.R. Rahman for Rihaayi De.
Results
Words of gratitude
Team IFTA congratulate the winners and appreciate the audience for supporting them and taking the time to vote.
IFTA hopes to see you again next year with the latest nominations and new results. Do not forget to share your feedback and suggestions.
Guru Randhawa