Neha Marda (Gehna of Balika Vadhu on Colors) was invited as a special guest on the show Boogie Woogie, in an episode featuring all its former winners. Neha has won the title thrice so far and her experience shooting for the special episode proved very nostalgic, and overwhelming, for the actress.
NEHA says, "I'll be seen performing at the start of the show's grand finale. In the episode, all the champions of the show will compete against each other."
The actress was initially asked to be a judge but she felt that she was not worthy of the position. She says, "I was told by the Boogie Woogie team that I deserved to be on the show. In fact, they also asked me to judge but it would be impossible for me to sit with the judges who selected me thrice as a winner."
So instead, Neha performed on the song Sajna Hai Mujhe Sajna Ke Liye. "I had only half an hour to rehearse and I did it in my vanity van! Still, it was fun being back on the show," she adds.
Neha has won the Boogie Woogie title thrice: when she was 11, 15 and 17-years-old.
Yet, she still had the jitters when she went onstage again. She adds, "I have done many stage shows and performed at awards functions too. So the stage has never been daunting for me. But when I got on to the Boogie Woogie stage, all the memories came rushing back! I remembered how I would wait for Javed's questions and how I would get scared before every elimination. Memories from all three times on the show were all jumbled in my head."
The actress, who is trained in bharatnatayam, kathak, jazz and salsa, refused to take any payment for her appearance on the show. Even so, she didn't leave empty handed. She says, "When they called me, I was so excited at the chance to perform after such a long time that I was jumping everywhere. They asked me for a quotation but I would have been ashamed to take money from them. I flatly told them that I did not want anything. Even so, they gifted me a gold and diamond necklace. I took it as their blessing."
Asked whether she would ever consider being on a dance reality show, Neha says, "I don't know what the criteria behind dance reality shows are but I would love to be on one."
Boogie Woogie, judged by Ravi Behl, Naved Jaffrey and Javed Jaffrey, airs every Friday and Saturday at 8pm on Sony.
http://www.indya.com/news/newsDetails.aspx?xfile=2009/April/News_20090430_136
| |