Dildaar Remo on Zee TV's Dance India Dance

He might have been named ‘ Gabbar’ for being little stern with the contestants last year, but this Gabbar actually has a heart of gold! Chotu Lohar belongs to a very impoverished family in Jharkhand and earns a meager living by cutting stones in the mines. Last season of DID invoked his passion for dance and he tried to learn the art by watching television. The passion drove him to Kolkata where Chotu left the mentors spell bound with his muscle flexing. “ Aap agar untrained hoke itna achha dance kar sakte ho….toh I wonder under training aap kitna achha perform karoge”, was Remo’s immediate reaction. A teary eyed chotu said, “ Sir, train karne ke liye paise kahan hai….pet bharne ke liye paise nahi hote, dance karne ke liye paise kahan se laoonga..”

Master Remo was so very moved by the boy’s dedication, that he offered a life changing proposition to him. “ main aapko letter deta hoon. aap mere dance academy mein jao aur apna training shuru karo …all free of cost.. aur DID 3 mein wapas aao..”

One word from Geeta ma had changed Sanjay Sinha’s life, we hope this will give a new dimension to Chotu’s life as well.

From US to India… to become the Dancing Star

The final 18 are yet to be selected in the Nation’s much waited dance show Lux Dance India Dance but one girl who is already making headlines is 21 year old Nikitasha Marwah from Washington DC. The first NRI to have reached this far is already touted as one of the strongest contenders of this season. Whoever has seen her perform can’t stop talking about the girl’s agility and versatility. It’s a surprise that inspite of being a gen x girl and being brought up in USA, Nikitasha harbors a keen interest in Indian Classical Dance. This North Indian kudi has trained herself in ‘one of a kind’ and relatively difficult dance forms - Mohoniattam and Kuchipudi, staying in Washington!

The bundle of surprises do not end here. Nikitasha also holds the title of ‘ Miss India Worlwide’. Not only has she become Remo’s pride , but also Geeta and Terence’s darling. They just cannot rave and rant enough about the girl’s professionalism. Says one of the trainers, “ She is an extremely obedient pupil and a gentle human being at the same time. Her dedication and eagerness to learn has really made her popular amongst one and all”.

Don’t miss the upcoming episodes of Lux Dance India Dance to catch Nikitasha’s mindblowing performances.

Zee Dance India Dance: Sisters cross swords for TRPs!

What happens when two sisters participate in two reality shows on competing channels slotted for telecast in the same time slot? It’s a war for TRPs under the same roof!!! Delhi girls Shakti Mohan and Neeti Mohan are sisters who have made it to Zee TV’s Lux Dance India Dance and Star Plus’s Amul Music Ka Maha Muqabla, two high-profile mega-budget reality shows scheduled for telecast in the same weekend primetime slot on the two competing channels. And what’s more … the girls are not exactly unknown. Neeti Mohan first shot to fame with Channel V’s Popstars 2, where she made it to the music band ‘Aasma’ that belted out the catchy pop number “Chandu ke Chacha Ne Chaandi Ke Chamche se…”.
A few years later, as readies herself to impress the judges on Star Plus’s music show, her sister Shakti is all set to dazzle the dance gurus with her moves on Zee TV’s Lux Dance India Dance. If the buzz is anything to go by, the two sisters bear a marked resemblance and are superlative at their respective art forms. So is the rivalry catching up at home? Shakti immediately clarified, “Oh no, not at all. We are extremely close as sisters and nothing matters to us more than each other’s happiness. We hope both the shows do exceedingly well. And that we get noticed for our talent. Just pray for both of us!” So, will it be Neeti who sets the TRP’s soaring for Star Plus or will Shakti prove lucky for Zee TV and dance up a TRP storm for Lux Dance India Dance? Only time will tell … stay tuned!

Big Boss Season 3 - Vindu Dara Singh was the winner

Finally, the third version of Big Boss has now ended. The season this time tried to be more glamorous in terms of stars by bringing in former stars such as Vindu Dara Singh, Poonam Dhillon, but the biggest star to grace the sets was getting Amitabh Bachchan in the form of the presenter. Compared to having previous presenters such as Arshad Warsi and Shilpa Shetty, getting Amitabh was a bigger coup, and would have contribute to raising the profile.
At the same time, it seems like the people in Big Boss are getting encouraged to fight much more to rake up controversy, since some of the fights, especially by Pravesh, and by Kamal Khan were without any reason. And once Kamaal was evicted because of his bad behavior, to bring him back for some time was like doing a provocation. At the same time, apparently Big Boss was also told to be careful about being careful on the amount of skin show, since the skin show was drastically reduced, and there was nobody behaving like Payal Rohatgi from last time.
The various people in this version of Big Boss were:
Ismail Darbar
Sherlyn Chopra
Kamal Rashid Khan
Poonam Dhillon (2nd runners up)
Bhakhtiyaar M Irani
Tanaaz B Irani (first time a husband wife team was included)
Vindu Dara Singh(Winner)
Aditi Govitrikar
Jaya Sawant
Shamita Shetty
Claudia Ciesla
Rohit Verma
Raju Srivastav
Pravesh Rana (runners up)
Vinod Kambli

Bandini - Santo has to take a hard decision

This is now completely ridiculous, how can a person land up in the same problem; looks like the writer of the serial is manufacturing things from thin air. Consider the earlier case, Santo was married to DM, and as a result, Khemi and Hiten could not get married. In the end, Khemi married Arjan, and saved her sister the trouble.
And then, many episodes later, it came out again that Arjan is also DM's son (looks like he has got sons all over the place, and since Moulick was not his own, he just got a replacement). But the same situation all over again, how can Khemi be married to Arjan, since by relation, Arjan is now Santo's son (after all, the son cannot marry his mother's sister). To get around this, DM asks Santo to sit in decision this time. The added complication is that Hiten does not like Arjan, and said that he would not like to live in the same house as Arjan.
However, when Santo gives her decision, she rules against Khemi and Arjan, something that causes all of them, Hiten, Khemi, and Arjan all to criticize her. Khemi even sarcastically calls her the "malkin" (owner of the house). At this, probably for the first time, Dharamraj calls the family and scolds all of them for forgetting what all Santo has done, that she took the right decision, and how can Hiten even think about criticizing her. Arjan however says that he will leave with Khemi, and suddenly, it turns out that Khemi is pregnant, and is advised bed rest. What will happen to Santo's order ?

Aapki Antara: Antara picks up singing

The show from time to time shows the disappointments in the life of a parent, who has autistic children, along with the struggle and the hard work. However, it is also shown that autistic children have certain properties that can surprise their parents and others near them. For example, many autistic children have been known to have very good artistic abilities, and even though they cannot express themselves easily in terms of learning or being able to speak normally, these abilities can surprise.
In this case, Vidya has been feeling depressed, not able to handle Antara, and her needs. She has also been feeling a bit distant from her husband Aditya, and she gets advised by both Aditya and Dr. Vikram to take up singing again, since this used to be her passion, and also because this would be very useful for Antara. She agrees, and starts a concert, but is unable to continue since she breaks. At this time, surprisingly, Antara starts singing and completes the song.

Zee TV - Dance India Dance starts again

In 2008 and parts of 2009, Dance India Dance was a popular program on Zee that allowed normal citizens to show their dance capabilities (and some of them were very good). This was compared to other dance reality shows that allowed stars (from all walks of life, but still well know people) to show their capabilities. Dance India Dance became much more popular as things moved on, with the master judge Mithun Chakraborty adding a nice touch to the whole proceedings.
Now, the show has re-started, and auditions are ongoing from city to city. There are huge crowds ready to audition, with the 3 judges being the ones to decide:
Terence Lewis
Geeta Kapur
Remo D'Souza
The host of the show was and is Jay Bhanushali
The show promises to be as exciting this time as it was last time.

Palkon ki Chaaon Mein - dead or not

Palkon ki Chaaon Mein is a serial that reverts to the traditional older concept of how a widow would be treated, and one is not sure whether the serial makers wanted to play on the concept of emotion and tragedy rather than show something uplifting. The serial started out right with a young orphan girl Suman having been taken in by a family, and then she falling in love with the younger son Karan. And then she realizes that the mother of the family actually wanted to get her married to the elder son Karthik who also has a soft corner for Suman. It takes a fair number of episodes to get the mother to believe in the love story between Karan and Suman, and to convince everybody in the house that this marriage can happen.
However, soon it came about that due to a tragedy, Karan dies and Suman got injured. And that is when the serial started showing all the horrors that a widow faces, including the mother being convinced that Suman was responsible for the death of her son. Only Karthik defends her and is aghast at the treatment of Suman, and at the same time, there is some amount of suspense about whether Karan is still alive or not.

Raaz - Pichle Janam Ka - something different

Reality shows, for many years now, have been the types of serials that bring users to watch the shows. However, people have got a bit bored with the familiar serials that have celebrities coming into song or dance, or those which are essentially the same types of competition. In between, you started getting Roadies and Dadagiri types of serials where the main point of the show was to surprise and humiliate the participants, with the hosts of the show being vicious, sarcastic, and so on. Serials even started bringing in popular film stars to make some difference.
In the midst of all this, comes the reality show called "Raaz - Pichle Janam Ka", that is now airing on NDTV Imagine and which stars the popular Bhojpuri actor "Ravi Kishan" as the host. The concept of the serial is somewhat interesting, that some of the problems that a person has could be based on some of the experiences of their previous birth, based on the popular Indian concept of reincarnation.
So, for example, the first episode took a lady who had a fear of flying, put her on a couch, and then she was taken back to experience the last minutes of her previous life, where she was a sailor who was traveling to New York, and who died in the same plane crash which also killed the renowned scientist Dr. Homi Bhabha in 1966. The concept is that exploring this side can eventual lead to them getting rid of the problem.

Bandini - Dharamraj now faced with another son

Things start to get more like other hindi serial in the latest twists and turns in this serial. Suddenly everybody is locked into equations of relations, and complications. The major issue in this serial is that Santu is the wife of DM, the head of the house, and it is impossible for her sister to marry Hiten since that would make the relations between the sisters as that of mother-in-law and DIL. So, Khemi marries Arjan and not Hiten, and Hiten finally accepts this.
And then there is the controversy about Moulick not being the son of DM, and being the son of Taru instead. DM cannot accept that he has been lied to for so long, and sends Taru off to live with Kanji. Just when these things are starting to settle down, and Moulick's marriage (not to Khemi) is about to happen, things start moving in the direction that Arjan turns out to be DM's long lost son, and then the equation between Santu and Khemi will be the same again.
In the meantime, Arjan is suspicious of Hiten and tries to kill him, and is just saved in the nick of time. DM refuses to believe that Arjan is his son, and asks for conclusive proof that Arjan is indeed his son, something that nobody can provide (nobody has heard of DNA).

Pavitra Rishta - Manav's family spends time in jail

Pavitra Rishta seems to be moving towards a climax. Whenever Manav tries to prove his innocence, things seem to go the other way and his image is further sullied, increasing the distance between him and Archana. Archana also started believing that Manav was responsible for some misdeeds that were blamed on him, and as a result, Manav is further shocked. However, Manav's father and Archana's sister believe in this relationship, and want to try anything to ensure that they get a chance to meet - this includes going to the other party's house to send over invitations for functions, and getting Archana to come over for the opening of Manav's garage.
This time, Manav manages to get proof of Ajit boasting that he was the one who was behind all these activities, and rides off to show this proof (proof was in a recording). However, Ajit's sister Manjusha decides to prevent this from happening, and files a complaint in the police station that Manav and his family commit torture on Archana (and the police take Manav in and beat them up - they do this without verifying the complaint and without even hearing the girl in question). As a result, Manav decides to finally break off all ties with Archana, even though Archana did not do any of this.
In the meantime, Sulochna and Archana's father have decided to get Archana married to Sathish, but Archana opposes this when she hears of this, since she cannot get Manav out of her mind. However, she does not know that Manav and his family are in jail, tortured and beaten up, and no longer so loving of Archana. What will happen next ?

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hain - The Mohit story

Trust a serial maker to drag a serial on and on. When the serial planned the marriage between Akshara and Naitik, it seemed like this would be a good time to end the serial. However, you cannot end a serial unless forced to, and hence the serial goes on and on. Nowadays, there are multiple stories that are ongoing;
- Akshara is facing the challenge of integrating with a new household that is more conservative than her own family; already seen when she is forced to always have her pallu over head.
- She is given responsibility of running the house, but the current servants of the house feel that she is demanding accountability for every bit of money spent, and they resent it
- The story of Naitik's friend, Mohit, has started unfolding. His family is in a bad financial position, and his mom nags both him and his father to do something about this. She wants Mohit to work with her brother, but this is not something that Mohit can accept. He is looking for a job, and from behind the scenes, Naitik is trying to help.
- Naitik's sister, who is handicapped, has started liking Mohit, but is unwilling to accept this easily, and snipes back at Akshara when Akshara suggets this
- Most problematic for Akshara, her mother-in-law has mistakenly thought that Akshara was complaining about her, and is now becoming cold.

Perfect Bride - Rumpa is the one

Perfect Bride, on Star Plus, finally reached an end. The show, which featured a number of girls and boys with their parents with the girls and boys steadily getting eliminated, finally came down to 2 girls (Rumpa and Priyanka) and 2 boys (Hitesh and Rajbir). And the couples had already been formed with Rumpa being attached to Hitesh, and Priyanka getting attached to Rajbir.
However, the relationship between Rajbir and Priyanka was not close to being committed since Rajbir's father was not ready to accept this marriage via the show, and in his absence, both Rajbir and his mother were not ready to go ahead with a marriage. But Rajbir had given a commitment to Priyanka that he stated he would honour.
And now the date of the final version of the show, on Sunday 12 December 2009, came up, and the show reached a final 3 hour end-game. Rakhi Sawant was there as one of the main attractions, and here she declared that her engagement with Elesh was over, and was irritating as usual.
3 main things happened on the show:
- Rajbir's father, reached over phone, refused to commit to a marriage now. He apparently does not like all this business about getting married in a hurry, and the intervention of Shekhar Suman did not have any difference. He wants the 2 families to meet and discuss, something very logical.
- Rumpa became the Perfect Bride, beating out Priyanka
- Rumpa and Hitesh also got married

Uttaran - the Thakur goes down, and is now in hospital

Things are really going haywire in the serial Uttaran. After the shock that Tapasya delivered by forcing a switch so that she could get married to Veer, he never got over the shock, to the extent that he decided that he no longer acknowledged Tapasya to be his child, and now only claims that Ichcha was his daughter. However, Damini was able to see that the love for Tapasya was still there with Divya, and she wanted to ensure that Ichcha now stayed out of Veer's life, and she really did not acknowledge that Tapasya made a mistake. In addition, Ichcha herself did not really want to accept that Tapasya had done anything wrong.
With all this, Damini decided that this was the time for her to leave Jogi Thakur's house along with Ichcha, something that shocked both Jogi Thakur and Divya. Nani of course never liked Ichcha and Damini (considering them as servants), and hence was happy that they were leaving. Jogi Thakur however took this as a shock, and had a heart attack just when Ichcha was leaving. At the same time, there was the addition of a new member in Veer's house, his father's younger brother who was back from prison and of whom nobody really wants to talk about.
Tapasya is trying to fit into the house, but she has problems with doing some of the duties that a bride must do, such as some amount of cooking, given that she has not been used to doing such things and considers them not worthy of doing.

Perfect Bride - 2 couples announce their engagement

The Perfect Bride is reaching close to a conclusion; after the drama of the past many weeks, the show on this Sunday, on the 6th of December, 2009, has announced the engagements of the couples - Rajbir and Priyanka; and Hitesh and Rumpa. The day before, Hitest did a major drama by saying that he was not ready for the marriage, since he had been told many things by the mother of Rumpa, and as a result, he was hurt. However, today this was revealed to be just a drama, and that he was interested in committing to Rumpa.
The story of Rajbir and Priyanka is not so easy to resolve, since Rajbir's father is not fully in favor of this marriage, and as a result, his mother (who is there on the show), is unwilling to give her approval. She may like Priyanka, but until his father approves and the family is fine, she will not give her approval; this is something that Priyanka really does not like and she has got into cold wars with Rajbir over this situation.

Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya hi Kijo on Zee TV - Laali runs away

The story is taking a different turn, with a trip to Nepal being the way out for a hunted Laali and Shekhar. For some time now, Laali is being hunted by Ranvijay who has a running fight with his own brother Shekhar. Things reached a peak where Ranvijay plotted to kill Laali by burying her alive, and it was only when Shekhar reached there in the nick of time that he was able to dig out the earth covering Laali and saved her. Eventually, after a confrontation between Shekhar and Ranvijay where Shekhar also threatens his own father, Thakur Loha Singh with a gun, Shekhar leaves the place along with Laali. He also states quite clearly that his father will have to make a choice between his sons, with one unable to give a heir, and the other not willing to give a heir.
Ranvijay follows soon after, and eventually they end up in Laali's village where she meets her family, but Ranvijay is following soon after. Seeing that Laali has already left, he catches Munna (Laali's brother) and threatens to hang him if they don't tell him where Laali has gone. Petrified of the threat to Munna, they tell Ranvijay enough that he leaves Munna. And then they show Laali and Shekhar getting off the jeep and seemingly heading towards Nepal.

Aap ki Antara - Being forced out of school

As the focus in the show has shifted to the children getting a bit older, they are starting to show the challenges that an older Antara is facing. Billu is now pretty smart and confident, able to take on any challenge that he needs. However, things are not so easy for Antara. Abhishek, who was so supportive of Antara when he was a small child, has started to get irritated with this burden and responsibility. He is unable to stomach the ridicule that he faces because of Antara's autism, and gets irritated.
Antara autism had led to her getting involved with terrorists, and this was something strange, given the entire situation. 2 terrorists had used Antara to get past a police check post, and when they were caught later, Antara was also caught. However, she was released due to her autism, and since it would seem obvious that she had no connection with the terrorists.
In the meantime, Antara also got removed from her school, since it would seem that she was unable to pass her class (although she had a good mathematical brain) and her school principal wanted her out of the school, as did her school teacher. Finally, they made her sit in a test, but she was unable to clear the test, and is now at home.

Perfect Bride - trying to do match-making via a reality show

Perfect Bride is a reality show being run on Star Plus on weekdays at 10:30 PM. The show, with 3 glamorous judges in the form of Amrita Rao, Shekhar Suman and Malaika Arora Khan. The show started on September 12, 2009, and follows the hunt of 5 bride-grooms to find their brides. The show started with 10 brides, and are slowly getting eliminated on a weekly basis.
The men have to do various contests (that involve a combination of physical strength and their balance) which will give them the right to stop a bride from getting eliminated. Out of the 5 boys, 2 of them have been eliminated over the course of the program, and we are now left with 3 boys. Further, the girls stay with the mothers of the boys, and have to impress the mothers of the grooms (and very oddly, the mothers of the grooms are also known by the name of their sons, not by their own name).
Every week, a girl is chosen as the bride of the week, and gets a gift hamper. Further, the girl cannot be eliminated by the selected mom of one of the boys, and another girl has to be selected. What used to happen was that the mother who was selected to eliminate a girl would typically eliminate a girl who was not comfortable with her son, increasing the chances that the remaining girls would be more comfortable with their son.
The remaining boys are Hitesh Chauhan, Rajbeer Singh, Vivek Agrawal
The remaining girls are Priyanka Sharma, Gurpreet Kaur Sandhu, Rumpa Roy