MUMBAI: The true battle for survival has begun on Channel [V]'s Launchpad with the finalists whittled down to a lean seven.

The seven bands who have made their way to Channel [v]'s third edition of [v] Launch Pad are Faridkot, Reverse Polarity, Cassini's Division, Blank Noise, Workshop and Prachir.

The seven bands will now be housed in 'The House of Rock' for 10 days, beginning 31 January. The bands, who are yet unaware that they have a different itenerary ahead of them, will have judge Vishal Dadlani waiting for them at the House of Rock with a task that the bands will have to perform.

One of the bands stands to get eliminated the same day by Vishal, based on the performance. The channel has devised this novel way of whittling down the bands, on various parameters, and in differing circumstances.

On 27 January, the channel invited 20 of the shortlisted bands to the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai for live performances. The live audience at the stadium selected 15 bands of the 20 at the end of the day.

The 15 bands then went through a further elimination process on 28 January in Mumbai, and the final seven were chosen.

The chosen seven will now be put through the brutal litmus test by a heavy duty jury of Indian rock legends like Vishal Dadlani (pentagram), Bobby (Zero), Baan (Orange Street), Shaair and Func, Dhruv and Ashu (Blue Frog), Shekhar (Vishal Shekhar fame) Raghu Dixit and others.