Surbhi Jyoti on upcoming Kathak performance: I have given my best to this performance

It’s that time of the year when everyone rejoices with the arrival of the festival of lights. While the pandemic might have posed its own challenges for all of us this year, Diwal brings with it a ray of hope. To delight its viewers, Zee TV has a special Diwali surprise in store for audiences with a three-hour special episode of Kumkum Bhagya, Jashn Milan Ka, on 14th November 2020 at 12 pm and 8 pm. Fans of the show have been waiting with bated breath for Pragya to return to Abhi’s house in Kumkum Bhagya. With the festival marking a new beginning for the audience’s favourite on-screen jodi, viewers will get to witness Pragya receiving a bahu-like welcome from Dadi, followed by Abhi Pragya performing the Diwali rituals together with hope in their hearts. The fun and entertainment quotient of the show will double up as Abhi calls for a Diwali celebration at his house. 

During the shoot of Jashn Milan Ka, Surbhi Jyoti kickstarted the festive celebration with a mesmerizing opening act full of diyas and lights at Abhi’s house. Dancing with lanterns in her hand, she swayed to hits like Ram Leela’s Mor Bani Thangat Kare and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’s title track. However, it was her classical act on Ghar More Pardesiya from Kalank that took everyone’s breath away. In fact, what was more impressive was the fact despite not being a trained classical dancer, she aced the Kathak moves like a pro!

Talking about her Jashn Milan Ka act, Surbhi Jyoti shared, “I had a great time doing the opening act for the festivities for Abhi - Pragya’s reunion. For the last few occasions, I have performed on either western songs or popular Bollywood dance numbers, however, this time I got an opportunity to do an out-and-out Indian classical performance, hence I was looking forward to it since the time I was offered the act. I am not a trained classical dancer, so I had to learn everything starting with the basics as there are a lot of gestures, movements, and expressions involved in Kathak that I needed to master. I learned the basics of the dance form in a couple of days with the help of our choreographers and then, after a couple of proper rehearsals on the day of Jashn Milan Ka’s shoot, the choreography that the act demanded was completed. When you give it your all and perform with love and compassion, I guess nothing can stop us. I have given my best to this performance and I’m excited for my fans to watch it.”

Talking about the challenges she faced while shooting, the actress further added, “I had to perform in a big diya, that too with two lanterns in my hand and I was so scared that the diya might topple or I might fall down as I had to do a lot of moves during the act. I did have a couple of moments where I thought I would fall, but everything went smoothly in the end. Hats off to Zee TV and Balaji, they’ve managed to pull off such a show during the pandemic. I must say that everyone was very particular about safety, be it using masks or with the sanitizing requirements. The whole floor and equipment were being sanitized from time to time, people were maintaining distance and all the precautionary measures that were humanly possible were taken. Looking at the precautions being taken, you feel safe and that helps us to shoot without stressing and I thoroughly enjoyed performing.”

Joining Abhi will be all the popular Zee TV faces like Karan - Preeta (Dheeraj Dhoopar and Shraddha Arya),  Ranbir - Prachi (Krishna Kaul and Mugdha Chapekar), Agastya - Chhoti Guddan - (Savi Thakur and Kanika Mann) and Rishabh - Shrishti (Manit Joura and Anjum Fakih) along with television stars like Surbhi Jyoti, Avinash Mishra, Vrushika Mehta, Krystle D’Souza and Deepika Singh.