Abhishek - Star promised victory to us

Rakhi Sawant's crusade against rigging!

EASILY THE most liked or the most despised (it doesn't make a difference!) glamour girl in the country's showbiz circuit, she is crusading against rigging in elections! She challenged, "I and Abhishek will be performing on 31st night, which will be a challenge for us and also for everybody else. People will come to know the real abilities of Rakhi and Abhishek."

"We will give a tough fight to Aamir and Sanjeeda in the finals. But I would have liked to be pitted against Kashmira Shah, as she is a talented dancer. However, she got eliminated from the show," said a confident Rakhi Sawant before the final countdown of the reality dance show Nach Baliye-3 on Star Plus channel scheduled for Dec 22. In the expectedly unreal world of 'reality shows', Rakhi did have splendid chance to emerge victorious. After all, she is easily the most liked or the most despised (it doesn't make a difference!) glamour girl in the country's showbiz circuit!

As it turned out, the pair of Sanjeeda Shaikh and Aamir Ali edged past Rakhi and her partner Abhishek Awasthi at the winning post. Starting off as underdogs, the coy couple continuously polished their act in each episode to claim the title. No sooner did Salman Khan announce the winners, than a shattered Rakhi, in tears, trooped out along with her boyfriend, refusing to receive the trophy for the runners-up. Visibly in low spirits, Rakhi kept to herself for the whole day. The disappointment was understandable. The Nach Baliye crown comes with a moolah of Rs 25 lakhs plus several other benefits. In the virtually winner-take-all format, the champions get catapulted into the top league of TV stars.

After a day, the sour loser was her usual 'innovative' self. She became a public interest campaigner and went with her mate to a police station in suburban Goregaon. Purpose: to lodge a criminal complaint against a TV channel for robbing them of their rightful fame! She told the paparazzi chasing her, "I want Mumbai Police to be my Santa this year." The duo pleaded with the Mumbai Police to take immediate action against the channel and the show's organisers.

"We have accepted the complaint but not yet registered a case," said Oshiwara police station in-charge Dilip Patil. He was however not too disturbed by the 'injustice' done to the starlet, saying, "There are far bigger issues of importance than this, so we shall deploy our men as per the merits of the case."

Nach Baliye-3 was one of the money-spinning Star Plus mega shows, although not in the same league as Kaun Banega Karodpati of the yesteryear, anchored by Big B. It went on for over three months and featured 11 celebrity couples. Sanjeeda, who was first noted in the Star Plus serial Kya Hoga Nimmo Ka and currently plays a vamp sister in Kayamath, along with her mate Aamir, received the champions' title and trophy from superstar Salman Khan. "They wanted a Star actor to win from the very beginning," commented Rakhi, mercifully not raising the bogie of a Hindu-Muslim conspiracy!

They specifically called a press conference to 'expose' the wrongdoings of the organisers of reality shows: "The voting is manipulated, with SMS's getting blocked or corrupted; the software gets tampered with. Such frauds will never stop if the police do not investigate this 'cyber crime'", she held forth. It was not that the actor was not aware of the 'cyber crime' before. Just two days before the finals, she was quite confident and happy with the 'rigging' that was to take place. Her partner Abhishek told one of the insignificant channels that Star promised before the show that they would remain till the very end. Probably misinterpreting the 'end', Rakhi had rehearsed her victory speech: "Earlier, I was described as a controversial girl or item girl by film glossies. However, I have silenced the critics with my dancing skill in 'Nach Baliye 3'. In music videos, I used to perform Western dance, but here I have shown my versatility by performing traditional Indian dance forms. I and my dancing partner Abhishek have danced on a plate balancing burning 'diyas' on our heads. We rehearsed for three weeks and sometimes melted wax used to fall on our bodies. It was so painful but all the hard work has paid off."

She challenged other contestants, saying, "I and Abhishek will be performing on 31st night, which will be a challenge for us and also for everybody else. People will come to know the real abilities of Rakhi and Abhishek." To the viewers, her advice is: "I request all viewers not to waste money on SMS voting because it is fixed. It is just a money-making business." Abhishek declared categorically, "Rakhi and I do not want to work with Star any more. We are emotionally hurt. The result was manipulated." Rakhi said when their friends tried to vote for them, they got a recorded message saying it was temporarily not available. "How is that possible?" she wanted to know, but did not specify how many 'friends' had been set up to vote like this.