Two powerful salsa dancers from the town of Ponda have proven that talent and hard work can you
places; in their case, on national television, not once but thrice! Amit Rajput and Sakshi Kurtarkar have been
getting their moves right for the last three years, capturing the attention of their audience, which is now paying off in a television show with a difference.
The two are currently contestants of the show ‘India
Banega Manch’ and their episodes will be aired on
Colors TV on July 1 and 2, 2017 from 9pm to
10pm. This particular talent show requires the
contestants to perform in front of a live audience and attract the maximum number of viewers within a certain
time. This number is taken into account and the contestant
with the highest number proceeds to the next round of the competition. “It is a
mixed talent show with a different format. While reality shows takes place in a
studio, here we are amidst the public. The crew sets up a
stage outdoors in front of an actual crowd. We performed in a mall in Mumbai,” informs Amit, who was contesting against nine other participants.
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Sakshi
adds, “As the format is completely different, you have to depend entirely on your talent to catch the attention of the audience. For other
shows, it is usually 2-3 judges who have to be impressed; here you
are in front of a live audience and each person matters.
“It was a good experience as we got to see
different talents on one stage. The performances
were held over the course of a day, with a
break of few hours in between. It had to be done in one go without any mistakes
and though we have performed for champions and reality TV, this was even more
challenging.”
Amit and Sakshi performed salsa on the remixed song ‘Oh Ho Ho Ho’ from the film ‘Hindi
Medium’. As Goan contestants, they had to perform in Mumbai, while participants from other parts of
India had other venues like Kolkata and Pune. They received 443 points. Though
the show will be aired for one hour, the actual performance was held for the
full day with different contestants performing almost hourly at the same venue.
Amit and
Sakshi are not new to national television. They were semi finalists in the show ‘India’s Got Talent’ Season 5 (Colors) and one of the top seven in ‘Dance Plus’ Season 2 (Star Plus).
Amit
teaches dance in schools like El Shaddai, Assagao and Kid’s Nest in Ponda. He is also a member of the Extremers Dance
Academy. Sakshi is a third year Commerce student at GVM’s GGPR College of Commerce and Economics,
Farmagudi, Ponda. An Indian classical dancer, Sakshi was interested in learning other dance forms
like Hip Hop and Bollywood and Latin Ballroom when she met Amit. She had been learning Latin
ballroom for almost one and a half years before they teamed up to perform at the All Asia Salsa Champions 2016; they were the runners up the All
Asia Bachata Champions 2016.
“We
practise regularly and we even participated in the India International Dance
Congress where we won the competition but did not have enough funds to travel
to the USA for the World Championship. Despite earning accolades for our state and country, we have a tough
time finding sponsors,” reveals Amit.
Speaking
about the pairing of the two for dance shows, Sakshi says, “I had many dance
partners but this is my most successful partnership. Earlier, my partners and I were new to dancing and we would falter at some stage but Amit is well
trained and very versatile. He is very understanding and creative when it comes
to choreography.”
