Soha Ali Khan announces Rishi Anand Nambair as India’s national spelling champ of Classmate Spell Bee Season 11

by Samiksha 

Mumbai,April 2019: The Classmate Spell Bee Season 11, India’s largest spelling competition, an initiative of Radio Mirchi, culminated today at a thrilling finale where the winners were announced and feted by none other than Bollywood star, Soha Ali Khan! Rishi Anand Nambair of GEAR Innovative International School, Bengaluru was declared the National Champion while Harshvardhan Ray of Delhi Public School, Bengaluru was the first runner up.

The theme for the competition this year was ‘Be Better than Yourself’ which is in line with Classmate’s philosophy of encouraging children to excel in the field of their choice by striving to continuously improve by competing with themselves and not with others and to be better than themselves.

This year, the competition engaged with more than 6 lac students across 1,000 schools in 30 cities. The competition is conducted in various phases comprising on-ground, online and a final televised phase. The top 15 spellers from each school compete for a place in the city finals and then further onto the national finals. Only the top 16 students from across India battle it out in the televised National Finals, which will be simulcast this year on The Discovery Channel, Discovery Kids and Discovery Tamil starting 4^th May, 2019.

The National Champion of Classmate Spell Bee Season 11 won a grand prize of Rs. 2,00,000/- apart from an all-expenses paid trip to witness the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee 2019 with a parent in Washington D.C., U.S.A. The 4 semifinalists won a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 each. 

Mr. Yatish Mehrishi, COO, Radio Mirchi said, “With each passing year, Spell Bee is connecting more integrally with students, parents and teachers. Having started off as a spelling competition, it is today a landmark event that propagates the learning of the English language at the highest levels. With this property, we aim to bring together some of the brightest children from across the country on one of the most credible edutainment-based platforms. What makes this competition truly special is the pride that participants take in being a part of this and making it what it has become today.”

Mr. R Ravinarayanan, Head of Sales & Marketing, Education & Stationery Products Business (ESPB), ITC Ltd. said, "Classmate has always endeavored to recognize, nurture & celebrate the uniqueness of every child. Classmate Spell Bee Season 11 takes Classmate’s brand thought of celebrating uniqueness further as it gives students yet another opportunity to identify and showcase their distinctive talents and skills on a nationwide platform. Classmate Spell Bee season 11 builds on the scale we achieved last year with the aim of reaching out to an even larger number students across schools and cities in India, through a school contact program coupled with a novel mobile app and a dedicated website to engage students. The brand promises to support a child’s dreams with an equally unique & world class set of stationery products like notebooks, writing, drawing, art and math instruments."

Season 11 saw Classmate Spell Bee actively engaged with the students through a dedicated website with a comprehensive set of learning modules, tests, interactive blogs and contests to help the students prepare for the event.

The grand prize for the winner of Classmate Spell Bee and those for the semi-finalists have been specifically designed and sponsored by Classmate to help encourage and enable students to follow their hearts true calling.

The competition this year is powered by The Times of India, Times NIE is the education partner, Discovery Kids is the television partner and Victor Tango is the event partner for the property.