Indian Idol 12 judge Manoj Muntashir says Amit Kumar ‘took money’ to come on show, then criticised it

Indian Idol 12 judge Manoj Muntashir said that if he was in Amit Kumar’s place and unhappy with the way the show was going, he would have opted out of it.

Lyricist Manoj Muntashir, who is filling in as a judge on Indian Idol 12, responded to the controversial Kishore Kumar tribute episode, featuring singer Amit Kumar as a guest judge. After the episode was criticised online, Amit said in an interview that he did not enjoy it, and was asked by the show's team to praise all the contestants.

Manoj Muntashir is filling in as a judge on Indian Idol 12 in the absence of Neha Kakkar, Himesh Reshammiya and Vishal Dadlani.

Speaking to a leading daily, Manoj said, “If Amit Kumar came out and lashed out at the show, he shouldn’t have agreed to be a part of it in the first place. He took money for being a part of the show and then criticised it. I wouldn’t have done what Amit Kumar did. If I was in his place and not comfortable with the proceedings, I would have told the makers that I don’t want to be a part of the show.”

Indian Idol 12 judges, singer Neha Kakkar and singer-composer Himesh Reshammiya, were criticised for singing Kishore’s songs on the show. Manoj defended them and said, “Let me tell you one more thing. If I sing Kishore Kumar’s songs in my bathroom or amongst my friends, nobody can tell me that I can’t sing like him. I know I can't, nobody can. Whatever Neha and Himesh sang, they did to celebrate Kishore Kumar and it should have been taken in the right spirit. There was nothing wrong in what they did.”

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After Amit’s comments, Indian Idol 12 host Aditya Narayan and former Indian Idol winner Abhijeet Sawant said that he should have expressed his grievances to the makers instead of speaking to the media about it.

Aditya also seemed to take a dig at Amit in a later episode as he asked guest judges Kumar Sanu, Roop Kumar Rathod and Anuradha Paudwal if they liked the show. “Yeh jo aapne humare contestants ki itni taareef ki hai aaj woh aapne dil se ki hai ya aapko humari team se kisine bola karne ke liye (The way you have praised our contestants so much today, did you do it from the heart or did someone from our team tell you to do it)?” he asked.