“The mountains are raging”, says Pradip Pradhan, secretary of Indian Idol contestant Prashant Tamang’s fan club. A businessman has offered Rs. 1 crore to the singers campaign. People are going from house to house, asking for contributions. I was told recently that there are banners at the Sikkim border, asking people to vote for Tamang. Politicians have donated PCOs for voting, since Tamang and another singer Amit Paul have two Indian states competing for winning Indian Idol (the Indian version of American Idol).

Why is all of this important? Because the voting is by SMS and telephone, and translates into revenues for the TV channel - Sony (NYSE: SNE) Entertainment Television (SET) and telcos. Reports in the Times of India and Economic Times give some idea of the revenue: 1 million SMS’ for Tamang. Three million SMS’ (unofficial figure: 5 million) in an 11 hour time period last week. Expectedly, there are no official figures of how it’s been so far, from the telcos. Around 20-30 million SMS’ are expected over two weeks for the final of Indian Idol, and that’s at Rs. 3 per SMS, and Rs. 6 per minute for voice messages. This reminds me of something Onmobile CEO Arvind Rao had told me over a year ago, on the sidelines of the CII Marketing Summit. Apparently, the DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) people had told him that even if you’re getting (for example) just 25-30 paise per transaction, be happy with that. It’s a volume game.