The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in association with Young Indians (YI) conducted the 4th edition of Chennai Got Talent in commemoration of 384th Chennai Day Celebrations under Azhagana Chennai with the theme of Livable Chennai and Loveable Chennai. The Grand Finale was held on 25th August, 2023 at The Lady Andal School, Chennai and attended by 1100+ people. The occasion was graced by prominent personalities including – Mr Chari, Chair of MSME Panel CII Chennai Zone, Mr Nitin Bothra, Past Chair Yi Chennai, CII Azhagana Chennai Panel & IPC, Managing Director of Nitin Wire Group, Mr Pratheep Chandramohan, Chair of Yi Chennai Chapter & Partner at Dolphin Auto Components, and Mr Srivas Anantharaman, Co-Chair of Yi Chennai & Founder/CEO of First Feet Engineering.

The Chief Guest for the evening Mr. Oliver Ballhatchet MBE, the Deputy High Commissioner, UK High Commission in India, Chennai graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and gave away the awards to winners along with Mr. Unnikrishnan AR , Chairman – CII Southern Region and Mr. Milan Wahi, Co-Chair, CII Southern Region.

As part of Chennai’s Got Talent, a series of competitions were organised and entries were invited. The auditions were held across the following pillars – Cultural Chennai, Emotional Chennai, Inclusive Chennai , Chennai for All, Sustainable Chennai and Future of Chennai.

The promotion saw a reach of 2 Million Chennaites through Social Media campaigns (Instagram, FB, Youtube, etc.), Influencer Marketing and various offline activities, along with TV ads, News Media ads, Radio Partnership, and connecting with 100+ Colleges, 100+ Schools, 25+ Disability institutions such as the Ability foundation. Over 1700 entries were received and select auditions held with the support of celebrity jury panel composed of acclaimed artists of the city.

The top 3 entrants from each pillar were given the opportunity to perform on stage. The deserving winners were:

Inclusive Chennai:

1. Sahana Niren

2. Tejas Sri Datta

3. Arjun Natarajan

Chennai for all:

1. Sreedevi K

2. Subha Ravishankar 

3. Suseitha Ivan

Emotional Chennai:

1. Vaishali K

2. Rohith Immanuel S

3. Elmer Jeff Fernando

Future of Chennai:

2 finalists

1. Phoenix paper

2. Team CYKIK

Cultural Chennai:

1. Balachandran R

2. Meghna V

3. Arjun Sai

Sustainable Chennai:

1. Team NYLA

2. Team Imperial Cruise

CII-YI also collaborated to unveil the Project Book Box, which invited school students to donate unused pages from their used notebooks that were bound into usable books and shared with the needy. A total of xxx books were distributed amongst needy children.

One more important activity as part of the Chennai Day Celebrations was the Emergency Responders Training Programme. CII-YI also raised 2000 Emergency Responders who were trained to be the first point of contact in case of accidents in the city. 

Like its previous editions, this year too marked yet another successful edition of Chennai Day and the organisers are geared up to put up a bigger and better show in the coming year.