Dance drama

Performances, boycott and a walkout.. the Saturday episode of Nach Baliye 4 will have all this and more, reports Bidisha Singh.

Performances, boycott and a walkout.. the Saturday episode of dance reality show Nach Baliye 4 will have all this and more.

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The episode, which was shot on Monday, had its share of drama as some contestants refused to perform. This upset the three judges, Farah Khan, Arjun Rampal and Karisma Kapoor.. so much so that they staged a walkout.

Arjun Rampal and Farah Khan stage a walk-out.

Unhappy with format
Naman Shaw who is paired with Megha Gupta, says that the couples were unhappy with the new format and wanted to boycott the shoot: “Earlier, only one jodi from the Shava Shava and Balle Balle team had to perform for the Saturday episode. But from this week, the jodis with the lowest scores (who end up in the bottom two) have to perform to another track.”

Two’s the issue
As per the new format, every jodi has to put together two performances. Considering most of the contestants are also actors in daily soaps, squeezing in time for rehearsals became an issue.

The channel was approached to sort the problem out.. but they insisted that the format couldn’t be changed. Some jodis rebelled.. they refused to rehearse and only prepared one dance item each. Abhijeet and Shilpa Sawant and Chetan and Lavinia Hansraj ended up in the bottom two. The Sawants refused to perform as they weren’t prepared.. Hansraj and his wife were reluctant too. This angered the judges who gave them an earful and stormed out of the sets.

Anupama Mandloi, senior creative director and content head, Star India, says, “It was an extremely volatile situation. The judges felt slighted and insulted by the jodis and decided to opt out. That’s when some of the jodis realised that they had gone too far and apologised.”

Farah Khan and Arjun Rampal came down strongly on the contestants, and rebuked them for being unprofessional.

“It was just so unexpected and extremely unprofessional on the part of the contestants. We had invested so much time and energy on them. I felt betrayed and let down. It was imperative to make the jodis realise that no one is bigger than the show,” says Rampal.

Sawant and Hansraj remained unavailable for comment.