'Criticisms are part & parcel of the medium' - Tina

2006 - Tina & Husein walked home with accolades, applause and the Winner's trophy for their brilliant performances in Nach Baliye 2!

2007 - The winning jodi was called onto host the 3rd season of the show. While Husein continued to impress with his hosting skills, his better half - Tina, received a lacklustre response from viewers.

For starters, there were rumours of you not continuing to host Nach Baliye. How & why did the rumours start?

The rumours started with me opting out of hosting the result episode. The main reason was - we shoot on the same day; it was too time-consuming, as it not just required make-up and outfit changes, but also script-reading which is almost 14-15 pages. Memorising the entire script takes a while and its never easy. Due to all this, earlier, shooting would wind up only at 3am! So you can imagine how it must be when we're on sets from around 8am to 3am; it gets very tiring for everyone, including judges & the jodi's. And so, only to save up on time, it was a mutual decision that I opted out of co-hosting the elimination episode with Husein.

You've been receiving a lot of flak with regard to your hosting skills. Your take on the criticisms..

Criticisms are part and parcel of the medium. Moreover, people who criticise might not really know what goes on behind the scenes, or the hard work and effort that goes into hosting a show as big as Nach Baliye.

I keep getting messages; I've had people come up to me and tell me about where and how I'm going wrong. I too am very critical about myself, and keep observing, and consciously make an effort to correct myself where I think I've gone wrong. I take criticisms in my stride; take it positively, but somewhere I feel the criticisms became too harsh. I'd just begun and comparisons with Mini Mathur and Mona Singh & even Husein, were unfair. Mini has almost 7-8 years of experience and Mona, being an actress knows the medium better and also can memorise scripts quicker, whereas it takes me a while to get into the groove of things. But I'm getting there; I do think I've improved over the weeks.

Your portion in the green room has come in for a lot of criticism..

I personally feel the essence of the green room is lost. If the green room is only about giving out the scores, that can be done on stage as well. But fact is, a lot of interaction happens in the green room which, unfortunately, is edited out and all you see are the scores.

Most parts of the green room are edited due to time constraints; they can't edit judges' comments or Husein's interaction with the judges' and jodi's, so whats left is my portion in the green room. Just for the record, green room part is a tough job. After watching the performances, the judges comments' to the jodi's, I need to quickly come up with different questions for them, react to their reactions and a lot more.. Personally, I love to interact with people & make new friends. I'm friendly and close to all the jodi's..there is a bond we share over a period of time that we've been together. In the green room, I'd had a fun segment with Pooja-Hanif; there was a time when Vikas-Amita started crying and so much more..but all was edited. At the end, it looks as if someone has come to my house, i'm not greeting them and straight ask them to have food..

Other criticisms you've had to deal with..

I've had people tell me about my voice..that it seems like I'm yelling into the mic; like a shriek and that I tend to speak a bit fast. Just that my voice is very soft and so, when i tend to speak a bit louder, it sounds like yelling. I too have noticed this, realise it and am trying my best to modulate my voice accordingly so that it does not sound like I'm yelling into the mic.

All said & done, I understand one can't make everyone happy. On my part, I don't take anything for granted, work hard, learn from my mistakes and give in my 100% to anything & everything I do. I just hope people's first impressions are not their last impressions.

Hard work pays.. or so they say. And criticisms, if taken positively, eventually bear good results. As a contestant, Tina has gone through the experience with Nach Baliye 2! As a host, the saga continues and we hope it bears the same results! And final impressions will be everlasting.. All the Best to Tina for all her future endeavours..