Gurmeet Choudhary wins 'Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5'

Television actor Gurmeet Choudhary and his choreographer Shampa Sonthalia Sunday won the fifth season of "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5 - Dancing with the stars". He defeated Rashmi Desai and Rithvik Dhanjani and took home the winners trophy and a cash prize of Rs.40 lakh.

A novice and a stiff dancer, Gurmeet wooed the audiences and judges with his moves and stylish grooves to pip Rashmi and Rithvik with the maximum votes.

Gurmeet, who earned fame as Ram of TV show "Ramayan", started his journey of "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5" from day one as the other two finalists came as wild card entries midway in the show. The judges' panel included Madhuri Dixit, Karan Johar and Remo Dsouza.

Gurmeet's popularity won him the much-needed audience votes, and his choreographer Shampa groomed him to get him the thumbs up from judges. He also suffered a shoulder injury, but he bounced back soon enough.

Gurmeet displayed performances ranging from robotic hip-hop, semi-classical moves and international dance forms like rumba and Paso Doble.

"It feels really great. After working for four to five months, this journey has finally come to an end. 'Mehnat rang layi hai' (hard work has paid off). The trophy belongs to my fans who have voted for me. Public is the winner of 'Jhalak...' not me," Gurmeet told IANS after winning the show.

The show started June 16 with 13 contestants including Gurmeet, Isha, Pratyusha Banerjee, Giaa Manek, Talat Aziz, Bharti Singh, Archana Vijaya, Shibani Dandekar, Jayati Bhatia, Darsheel Safary, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sushil Kumar and Ravi Kishan. Rithvik, Rashmi and Karan Wahi were introduced midway as wild card entries.

The grand finale evening not only witnessed some wonderful acts from the three finalists and former contestants of this season, but also saw Madhuri and Sridevi, once big screen rivals, share the stage. They shook a leg with each other on the show to "Mere haathon mein nau nau choodiyan" (Sridevi's popular song from the film "Chandni") and Madhuri's "Dhak dhak karne laga" from the film "Beta".

Another highlight of the show was Remo and Bharti's performance, as they danced together on "Dil kyun yeh mera". Throughout the season, Bharti often used have fun with Remo by calling him his "love-interest" and her dream of sharing the stage with the choreographer came true in the finale. Her comical acts and funny one-liners kept the entertainment quotient alive.

Madhuri also mesmerised viewers with her Marathi mulgi avatar as she danced to three Lavani numbers. Madhuri's husband Sriram Nene was also present on the show along with their children.

However, Sushil Kumar, Pratyusha, Isha, Jayati and Jayasuriya gave the finale a miss.