Hyderabad-based L.V. Revanth -- a popular name in the southern entertainment industry -- overcame the language barrier to emerge the winner of popular singing reality show "Indian Idol 9" on Sunday in a musical finale filled with various melodious as well as humourous motifs. Revanth, who has lent his voice for around 200 songs in southern films including "Baahubali: The Beginning", became known for his soulful voice right from the start when he auditioned for the show. Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar appeared for the finale for the world television premiere of his debut track "Cricket waali beat".

Despite not knowing Hindi, he sang Bollywood songs effortlessly throughout the season and defeated Hyderabad-based P.V.N.S. Rohit and Punjab's Khuda Baksh in the finale to clinch the "Indian Idol" trophy along with a contract with Universal Music and Rs 25 lakh.

Ace choreographer-filmmaker Farah Khan, renowned singer Sonu Nigam and music composer Annu Malik, who kick-started the "Indian Idol" journey as judges in the first two editions, returned on the panel for the ninth season of the Sony Entertainment Television show, which was hosted by Karan Wahi and Paritosh Tripathi.

Being a known singer in Telugu and Kannada film industry, Revanth was the judges' and audience's favourite. As he said on the premiere episode itself, he joined "Indian Idol" to get recognition nationwide and debut in Bollywood.

Earlier, "Indian Idol" worked as a platform for singers Abhijeet Sawant, Prashant Tamang, Sreeram Chandra and late Sandeep Acharya, who won the show in previous seasons and went on the make a name for themselves in the Indian music industry.