The 3 couples are nervous as hell

Farhan Akhtar

Winning ways

The three couples are nervous as hell. All the hard work and sleepless nights is beginning to show and those who've lasted this far in the competition now want to see it through.

A contestant even told me that he wakes up at 3 every morning to rehearse and practice his steps. Because of this kind of nervousness, a lot of them have lost weight; hopefully, some are happy about it.

It's a been a rough schedule and its not easy to come out week after week to pull this off. Also, what's not easy is to up the level and energy to come back with a superlative show after a bad performance before.

This week Poonam and Manish redeemed themselves after a bad performance and it was heartening to see them break out of the rut. They were lucky… if Delnaaz and Rajiv were even 50 per cent better, Poonam and Manish would have had quite a fight on their hands.

My favourites

So far, my favourite had been Varun and Rajeshwari's performance in the comedy round. The last couple of episodes have helped me revise my stance. I thought Varun and Rajeshwari's tango on Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai was superlative.

Even Parmeet's solo performance was fantastic. But the shocker for me was Apoorva and Shilpa's exit from the show — they had been consistently dancing well, scoring great marks from the judges and their exit was quite the surprise.

Shocking audience votes

The shocking exit did bring audience voting into the fore. There has been much talk and speculation about whether couples have been working the system of SMS voting.

As a judge, I hope they are not being unsportsmanlike. For me, it reflects somebody's character if they are, to those who have chosen not to head that way and vote for themselves, I think it's absolutely commendable.

As judges, it's distressing when the audience doesn't agree with your point of view.

Which is why we have been fairly critical of their work and willing to mark their performance for what it is. All of us have been a lot less lenient with them since Round 5 and to a great extent managed to separate the good dancers from the bad ones.

But the couples have also raised their performances to another level — they have been very responsible, more serious and they realize it's not about having a party anymore!

Personally, I am having quite a ball with the show. Nach Baliye has helped me meet some good actors; great people who I didn't know, and has helped me enjoy some fabulous performances. I don't know whether I will be a part of Season 2, if there is one. But I sure do hope there is a follow up to this because it's a great concept.

If you watch the show tonight at 9pm, watch out for the twist in the episode! That's all that I am going to tell you, because I want you to watch the episode till the last minute and be glued to your seats and your TV screens… And keep voting, because India will decide…

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