'I'm Very Excited About Lighting Up Times Square This Diwali 2025': Anjana Padmanabhan, First-Ever Winner of Indian Idol Junior

Anjana Padmanabhan's musical journey started when she was eight years old. Before Indian Idol Junior, she had done Tamil reality show Super Singer Junior 3 and made it to the semi-finals. "That was when my musical journey actually started," she says.

"Post-winning Indian Idol Junior, I started really learning music in a proper way. Until then, I was not really learning music professionally. I did it as a hobby," she reveals. "I genuinely love fusion music a lot. I listen to different songs and beats. I have favorites. It all depends on my mood." 

Anjana will be seen lighting up Times Square at the Diwali celebrations there and she has been at it for the last couple of months. "I have been preparing for this for a long time. The last three months have been crazy."

"There are so many things that were happening parallelly, and I was trying to balance everything, while juggling work at the same time. I'm very excited about lighting up Times Square this Diwali and I really hope that people get to enjoy it."

Quiz her about how she manages to have such high energy levels on stage, and she reveals that the secret is her love for music. "Honestly, I love performing on stage. For me, the stage is my element, and I love being on it. I enjoy performing in front of people. It is a different feeling altogether. The stage just gives me the energy to perform."

"Diwali is my favorite festival," says Anjana. "I still remember it has always been a thing in my family since I was a kid."

Most of her Diwali celebrations have been in Bengaluru. "My family has a lot of friends there since we used to live in a huge community with almost 1,500 families." For her, back then, it was like a huge get-together of sorts with everybody dressing up, coming downstairs to celebrate with their homemade snacks and sweets, which were distributed among all.

"There were crackers, and so many things that we used to do as children and I still do them. I miss the Diwali I enjoyed in Bangalore," she says.

For Anjana, Diwali is the most special time of the year. "The amount of fun that I had with family and friends is insane. We'd start preparing for Diwali a week or two before and go shopping together. It was beautiful."

Quoting the lessons she learnt on the Indian Idol stage, Anjana says the reality show taught her how to "perform in front of people while keeping her calm yet giving her best".

It is not every day, that one gets to experience singing on such a huge platform, in front of cameras, and in the presence of legends from the Indian music industry. It is on the Indian Idol stage that she's learnt how to stay composed and keep her emotions under control on stage.

As for Bollywood, she would love to give it a chance. "Bollywood is always something that I would want to be a part of. The way I look at it, there's the Bollywood world and then there's the world that's evolving in India with independent music coming to the fore. I really want to be a part of both for sure. I'm excited about it. I would surely love to be a part of any Bollywood film."