Come closer: Tina and Hussain. Picture by Aranya Sen

In the bizarre world of reality dance shows, Nach Baliye 2 has added a whole lot of twists and turns to the existing rules to woo the viewers already addicted to Jhalak Dikhhla Ja. And one of them is Suraksha Chakra, where the safe couples decide which of the two unsafe couples exit the show.

This is where the Tina-Hussain jodi is believed to be having an edge over the so-called better dancers. Simply because they are very popular amongst the couples on the show. When the two came to Calcutta to garner a few more SMS and phone votes, they seemed confident enough to make it to the last few rounds.

Easily the weaker of the two, Tina said: “These are my first ever steps towards learning how to dance but we are trying our best by putting in a lot of hard work. We would require everybody’s support in this attempt of ours.”

With the dance shows becoming popularity polls, Tina and Hussain will sure do well to wean away some of the votes from the favourites — Hiten-Gauri and Arjun-Gurdip.

Divine connection: Reena Kapoor on a pandal-hopping spree

Pray time

She came down here from Mumbai to pray to Devi Durga to give her strength to tide over a critical period in her reel life. But the rain god played spoilsport for much of her stay in Calcutta.

It was the first Puja visit for Reena Kapoor, the leading lady of Rajshri Production’s Woh Rehnewaali Mehlon Ki beaming to top TRPs on Sahara One. Pari, the character she plays in the serial, has just got married and is facing the prospect of life with a husband who walks out on her on the first night itself.

“It was planned that Pari would do arati and distribute bhog as that is considered auspicious. So I reached 66 Pally on Navami noon. The organisers were showing me around when it started raining. I had no option but to take shelter in the car,” said a crestfallen Reena, who was to be taken to a few other pandals in the Rashbehari Avenue area.

The evening before she had dared to venture to Maddox Square. The cops did not let the car stop for her to get off at the entrance, neither did the Ashtami surge in the park arouse much confidence.

It was Jodhpur Park on Navami evening where she could at last venture in. “It seemed much like our Ganesh Chaturthi — be it the crowd, the excitement, the new clothes…Only the idol is different,” was her take on Bengal’s biggest festival.

Woh Rehnewaali… is poised for a crucial turn. So Reena had to rush back for shooting the morning after. But she wants come back as a pandal-hopper. Aschey bochhor, abar hobey. Right Reena?

Series sequel

It has bagged both the Emmy and the Golden Globe in its inaugural series. Now the second season of Deadwood is back on HBO, which premiered on October 18.

Commenting on the new season, Shruti Bajpai, country manager, HBO South Asia, said: “HBO has always endeavoured to bring its patrons the best of English programming and we are proud to present Deadwood 2 exclusively to the channel’s viewers in India. ”

The new season takes viewers back into the chaos that is Deadwood with more twists and turns. The spring of 1877 brings major changes to this teeming outlaw camp as civilisation makes its way to town.

You can catch the 12-episode second series of Deadwood every Wednesday at 11 pm right after the 9 pm movie.