Santosh Lama wins Nepali Tara 2

KATHMANDU, Dec 22 – Santosh Lama of Dhading has left behind Tara Lapsang Limbu of Jhapa to win the title of Nepali Tara 2.Based on the public and judges’ voting, Lama was crowned Nepali Tara 2 at the show’s grand finale held at Nepal Academy hall in the capital on Friday evening.

According to Rajendra Shalabh, director of Nepali Tara 2, Lama had a slender margin in public as well as judges’ voting. A total of 676,600 votes were received through phone and SMS for the final.

Along with the title, Lama received a cash prize of Rs 200,000, a motorcycle and a trip to Malaysia and Singapore. He will also get to record an album with Neelbarahi films. Runner-up Lapsang won Rs 50,000 while second runner-up Surya Kiran Lama of Morang received Rs 25,000. The two finalists will also be going for a London tour shortly.

Nepali Tara 2 had started eight months ago and attracted altogether 11,345 participants from various parts of the country during auditions. The contestants were judged by Deepak Jangam, Ram Thapa and Deepak Bajracharya. The show’s first edition, won by Sunsari’s Deepak Limbu in 2005, had 9000-odd participants.

Meanwhile, director Shalabh said that they would start auditions for the third edition of Nepali Tara from Dharan starting mid-February, 2008. <Taken from www.ekantipur.com >