DD in Jhalak!! yipeee!! plzz support MAAN ki GEET - Page 241

Salman was born in Bengaluru but brought up in Saudi Arabia. "There is no scope for dance there but the medium excited me. When I returned to Bengaluru for my engineering course, I joined a dance group. First, it was only to impress girls but eventually dancing became a passion. In my engineering days, I would dance to relieve myself from stress. I would dance even while studying and my friends would call me a 'freak'. I was in my final semester when I got selected for DID," he recalls with a smile. Salman says that his journey in showbiz has been not a struggle exactly but it was not easy either. "I won Dance India Dance and that got me noticed. After that I had nobody to guide me. That's when the real struggle started. Allah has been kind. I was home for six to seven months wondering what to do and then I began to get more offers." He got a chance to perform in superstar Salman Khan's film Wanted and made his acting debut in Remo D'Souza's Any Body Can Dance.

Currently, he is busy with his second dance reality show Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa where he is paired with Dhrashti Dhami this season. "Dhrashti is a non-dancer and has been a challenge right from start. But it's also a challenge even with trained dancers like Yana Gupta and Isha Sherwani. The standards go even higher when someone like Lauren Gottileb is around who is more trained than the judges on the show," he says, adding that he has great respect for Dhrashti. "She is very dedicated and the best dancing partner I have had till date. Her schedule is insane because she has to juggle the rehearsals with the schedules of her show Madhubala. I need to plan smart to ensure that she can do a proper warm up routine before rehearsals," says Salman.

He has had his fare share of link ups as well. He says, "Yes, I have been linked with Yana, Isha and now Drashti. I apparently can create chemistry with anyone. I'm lucky to get good looking partners. The more the merrier. Yana stayed in touch only during the show, we haven't met in two years. Isha is travelling the world. I'd like to stay in touch with Drashti."

On the film front, Salman says, "My film Freedom releases soon. Here I got an opportunity to show my acting skills. I don't have any boundaries. I want to be versatile and try action, comic, and negative roles."