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Shahid shows a jhalak but will not dance

The actor will appear on 'Jhalak ... ', but only to boost the confidence of the participants.

Rati loses hair while rehearsing for 'Jhalak... "

Rati Agnihotri had quite an experience as she was being twisted around for the rumba dance rehearsal.

The last jhalak of Rati

Voted out from the dance-based reality show, the actor blames the choice of song for her exit.

Rati Agnihotri, one of the popular contestants on 'Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa' (Sony), is quite upset over her exit from the show. But keeping a positive attitude she says, "Every week one contestant has to be leave the show. So, it was my turn this time."

However, the actor believes that it was because of the choice of song on her last performance which became a deciding factor for her exit from the show. "The songs are decided by the production house and we were quite upset with the choice of song that was given to us. It was a low energy number and we had to incorporate 'cha cha cha' dance form which was quite difficult," reveals Rati. She further adds, "It was a Herculean task for my choreographer Feroz Khan and me. But I am not complaining because I am out of the show. Honestly, it was a difficult performance."

The actor further reveals that the brighter side of participating in 'Jhalak…' was the fact that she lost almost six kilos. "I had to undergo surgeries and the past year was not very good where my health was concerned. But the rigorous exercise and practice for the dance show helped me lose weight," she smiles.

She adds that her son and husband are equally upset about her not being part of the show any more. "Had we qualified for the third round, we would have rocked the dance floor. We were supposed to perform the Rumba and the song given to us was perfect. We were all set for a great performance on 'Sooraj hua madham'. But it is sad that we have been voted out."

Saying that she would now concentrate on her films she continues, "For now, I have had enough of reality television. You get a different feel but there's too much invasion of privacy. Even if I do ever think of participating in a reality show again, I will take some time off before I plunge into it again," she ends.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1054187

... says Aman Verma, who's looking to take up more challenging roles

Thanda farewell

Rati Agnihotri

Rati Agnihotri is out of Sony's Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa. The dramatic outing saw the yesteryear actress shedding a few tears that were not captured on camera, but witnessed by some of the participants.

However, it is believed that Rati didn't get too many hugs and kisses on her way out of the show.

Says an actress who's participating on the show, "Pooja got a better farewell than Rati, which is surprising because not too many people said good things about Bedi during rehearsals. We expected participants to at least go up to her and tell her she did well, but nothing of that sort happened."

The instant reaction to Rati's ouster was other contestants breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn't them, and that was definitely not made up.

http://www.mid-day.com/hitlist/2006/september/144045.htm

All set to dance

Chaitanya Padukone

Thursday, September 21, 2006 22:15 IST

Age's no bar for Rati


Although the graceful lady is out of the show now, Rati Agnihotri danced after almost 24 years on Jhalak Dikhhlaja and sure loved it. The actor says that given a choice, she would have loved to dance on Where's the party tonight?' Ask her if being the eldest on the show made any differnce to her performance and she says, "In a dance competition, age shouldn't be a factor as it's the spirit of dancing that counts. But in this particular dance format, my choreographer Feroz faced a problem as he had to keep my age and back problem into consideration." Well, it certainly didn't keep Rati away from wearing her dancing shoes! For most budding actors, Amitabh Bachchan or Shah.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/

Just a flash

Recently, we visited the sets of Sony's dance show Jhalak Dikhla Jaa.
We were curious to find out whether the show lived upto its hype and came away thinking it was excellent in parts (Mahesh Manjrekar, Shveta Salve, Ajay Jadeja), surprisingly good at times (Mona Singh) but otherwise an average fare ... The shoot was supposed to begin at 2 pm at Kamala Mills, Mumbai, but not a single TV event begins on time, much less a shoot, so we reached there a good half-an-hour late. Expectedly, there was no sign of the shoot happening as the celebrites were still putting on their make-up and their choreographer-partners were strolling around idly. At around 3 pm, the media was ushered into the studio and seated in a place specially marked for the 'press'. The first thing you noticed was the huge set was lit up beautifully in various hues. Even the steps leading to the floor had decorative lights. Guests invited for the show were being ushered in from the other side of the gate and Sandeep, the floor manager, was busy giving instructions on when to clap loudly and when to maintain silence. "Laugh if you want to, cry if you feel like, just be your natural self, only don't talk amongst yourselves," he kept repeating. To get the audience into the mood, he actually gave demos. On a cue from him, the crowd started clapping tentatively, 'louder' he said and the collective sound decible increased for a second before tapering down. "You clapped, but there was no josh, no energy," groused Sandeep before asking them to repeat the demo. This time the crowd had lost some of its inhibition and the sound was louder, some people even hooted and whistled. Some five demos later, the crowd had got their act right and everyone was laughing. Time was ticking by. It was 4 pm and there was no sign of the judges or celebrities in the studio. The media persons were getting restless. Just then, Siddhartha Basu, producer of the show, walked onto the dance floor and apologised for the delay. "An oil tanker takes a long time to get started or stopped. Just like that it takes time for a huge set-up like this to start rolling. But I assure you we have taken care of everything and the show should start in five minutes," he said charmingly and introduced the hosts Archana Puran Singh and Parmeet Sethi. Parmeet dressed in black tuxedo, Archana in a frilly, long skirt and sphagetti top took centrestage and rehearsed their opening lines and positions for the camera. At 5 pm, a good three hours later, the show finally began to roll. After opening the show with the title track Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, Parmeet and Archana ushered in the three judges of the show Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Farah Khan and Shilpa Shetty looking gorgeous in a pink outfit. The first celebrity to perform was chef Sanjeev Kapoor. The theme was cha cha cha and he performed on 'Aap jaisa koi...'. The performance sizzled at times but towards the end it just fizzled out. It was probably his outfit and accessories, too many of them, that weighed him down. The judges also said as much. The second celebrity on the dancing floor was Mona Singh who looked fat in the gypsy outfit. One didn't expect much from her but guess what? She turned out to be the surprise package. Despite her weight, the gal pirouted around flawlessy, did some difficult bends easily and the crowd lapped it up cheerfully. The song she danced for was 'Meter down ...' but the atmosphere was completely charged up. She just lit the stage with her performance. The judges were highly impressed and as Farah said the 'meter was up'. After the two performances, there was a short break, after which Mahesh Manjrekar took to the floor with 'Jawani jaaneman ...'. Oh, what a performance! It was disco mixed with typical Maharastrian folk steps. As a typical Mumbaite would say, it was total paisa vasool. Mahesh's dance had the entire studio in a frenzy. I for one had tears of joy. It was sometime before even the judges could pass comment because they were still laughing. As Farah said, he was the only performer who completely drew away the attention from his choreographer. Not a mean feat, at all. Mahesh's lively act was followed by a sombre performance from the senior most participant of the show, Rati Agnihotri. Rati who had taken flak for her sense of dressing in the last episode had turned up in a pretty blue outfit this time. Unfortunately, just after she had taken position, there was a technical snag and she was forced to take a break for five minutes. We know it's unnerving for a performer who's all set to dance and is forced to take a break. To her credit, Rati maintained her poise, kept her smile intact and when the director finally gave instructions to roll, she did so without a complaint. Her husband Anil Virwani and son Tanuj were there to cheer and support her. Still, her 'Zara jhoom jhoom ...' number left us short of swaying all the way. Her choreographer-partner was too fast which led to a lack of co-ordination and synchronisation between the two. After another break, in came Akashdeep Saigal to dance to the beats of 'Where's the party tonight ...'. Though energetic and synchronised, we felt it was not the best of the performances. It was Shveta Salve who captivated the crowd and the judges with her sensuous 'Aao na, gale lagao na ...' number. Sexy and graceful, Shveta won everyone with some of the most difficult swirls and twirls. Just when we thought that the show will wrap up with Jaddoo aka Ajay Jadeja's performance, the light of one of the live editing boards went off and the shoot was disrupted for half-an-hour. Ajay's dance, however, made up for the delay and had everyone screaming 'It's the time to disco...' That, however, was not the end. After his performance, the producer wanted to take some couple shots of the participants, so they were summoned on the stage and 15 minutes were spent in posing, first for the steady cam and then for two other cameras. The shoot wrapped up with the title track and the dancing couples on the floor. Even Archana and Parmeet joined and did a jig together. Here one must mention that Archana is a natural anchor while Parmeet requires readying up. He goofed up many a times leading to re-takes while his better-half hardly fumbled. Even if she did, she made up with impromptu lines and covered up her faults effortlessly. Even the show looks effortless on screen but again since you have already seen Nach Baliye, there's no novelty factor, save for the fact that it is supposed to have celebrites from different walks of life. However, except for Ajay Jadeja and Sanjeev Kapoor, everyone is connected to the entertainment field. It would have been interesting if they had roped in a model, a doctor or a litterateur. What say?

http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=13560

http://www.tellychakkar.com/y2k6/sept/22sept/grapevine.php

Caught on TV!!!

They met on the sets of Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi and from there on Mona Singh took on her friendship with Karan Oberoi much seriously. But officially she went on refuting her clandestine romance with the hunk from The Bad of Boys and labelled it as 'good friends'. But after yesterday's episode of Jhaalak Dikhla Jaa, the lady has once again fuelled the controversy. Post her performance on a Bollywood number, host Parmeet Sethi turned his attention to Mona's family for their comments and voila, we see Karan seated with her parents!!! It was reported a few days back that Mona's mom is very much eager to find a suitable match for her lovely daughter. So has the groom hunt ended? http://www.tellychakkar.com/y2k6/sept/22sept/grapevine.php