Indian Idol is a popular singing talent contest on Indian television. Based on the international Idol series format, launched by UK show Pop Idol, the contest is to determine the undiscovered young singer of the country.

The program is telecasted twice a week: There is an hour of performances in the first night and the second night features elimination. The show is produced and broadcasted on Sony TV, India. Along with Sony TV, India, FremantleMedia (makers of the Idol series), which is owned by the German media corporation Bertelsmann also produces the show. The winner signs a contract worth ten million rupees with Sony Entertainment Television (India) along with a chance to record an album. The winner also receives a car. The winner of the first season was Abhijeet Sawant and of the second season Sandeep Acharya who also got a guitar signed by Abhijeet Sawant.

Mini Mathur, the music TV VJ and Aman Verma, an established TV anchor and actor, anchored the first season and second season as a pair. In third season, Mini Mathur was joined by famous television actor and anchor of the show Khulja Sim Sim ,Hussain Kuwajerwala .

The judges of the show for the first and second season were Anu Malik, the well-known music director, playback singer Sonu Nigam and choreographer, Farah Khan. For the third season there has been changes in the judges panel .It now includes lyricist and script writer, Javed Akhtar ,Anu Malik, music director & singer , playback singer Alisha Chinoy and Udit Narayan .