MUMBAI: The final round of the Sahara Manoranjan Mr & Miss Bollywood contest to down-size the contestants to the final 30 actors, began in Mumbai today. The three-day auditions are being held at Filmistan Studios in the western suburb of Goregaon in Mumbai.

The final 74 aspirants, culled from the over 40,000 entries that were initially received from all over the country, will now be inducted into grueling three-day session, informs an official communiqué.

The performances will be judged by a panel comprising well-know Bollywood biggies like Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker, Mahesh Bhatt, Smita Thackeray, Pankaj Parashar, Priyadarshan, E Niwas and Ken Ghosh, among others. Some of these personalities will also interact with the participants and give them tips on acting.

The final 30 actors will be selected from these 74 and they will be groomed for a career in showbiz. Four of these 30 will be given lead roles in films. The winners will be trained in Mumbai and then launched into showbiz. The remaining 26 winners will be given assignments in television serials.

Managed by Percept D' Mark and audited by Ernst & Young, the talent hunt kicked off in the last week of March 2004.

Percept and Sahara will soon be announcing a film that will launch two of the winners. Filmmakers have already promised to give breaks to the winners, in their forthcoming projects, the release states.