Rituparna Sengupta

Move over, teen dance shows. It’s time for a bigger battle on who can do the best jhatkas and matkas — Bollywood beauties or Tollywood belles.

Spearheading the show is Tollywood’s leading lady Rituparna Sengupta. Her production house Bhabna Aaj Kal is mounting the expensive reality show, Dance Pe Chance, in association with Rose Valley Productions. Dance Pe Chance will be aired on Rose Valley’s to-be-launched channel Rupashi Bangla from end-July.

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The show

The Bolly Team

Mouli Ganguly

Resshmi Ghosh

Sai Deodhar

Barkha Bisht

Karishma Tanna

Sayantani Ghosh

Dance Pe Chance is a 45-episode show where six famous faces from Mumbai and six from Calcutta will fight for the best twinkle toes trophy. Singer Jojo will anchor the hour-long programme to be aired three days a week in primetime slots.

The dancers

The Bolly line-up boasts TV stars Sai Deodhar, Barkha Bisht, Resshmi Ghosh, Mouli Ganguly, Sayantani Ghosh and Karishma Tanna. The Tolly team features Rimjhim Mitra, Monami Ghosh, Sohini Sanyal, Ritika Banerjee, Arpita and Manjushree.

The star attraction

The two ‘R’s — Rituparna Sengupta and Rakhi Sawant. While Rituparna will appear in special episodes, Rakhi will shake her booty as one of the show’s celebrity guests. Every episode will have a Mumbai star as a guest performer, so talks are on with the likes of Govinda!

The jury

Bollywood choreographer and Nach Baliye judge Saroj Khan and percussionist Bickram Ghosh will give the verdict. “While Sarojji (Khan) will keep an eye on the over-all performance and movements, my judgment will be based on rhythm coordination. The choreography has to be in sync with the rhythm.... We have already started shooting and I am enjoying it. The Tolly-Bolly competition is neck and neck,” said Bickram, judging a dance-based reality show for the first time.

The format

A participant from each of the two teams will challenge the other in every episode through five rounds — Seduction, Nature, Tribute, Oldies and Special Tribute (on biggies like Kishore Kumar, RD Burman, Bappi Lahiri, Saroj Khan...).

Both teams — led by two captains chosen from among the dancers — will perform to Hindi as well as Bengali songs. The episodes will wind up with a rapid-fire round, where the contestants must do an impromptu jig.

The backstage team

The Bolly beauties are training under choreographer Baba Yadav (Dus, Qayamat). Netal Ghanatra is designing their costumes, while Subhas Shinde, the man behind Katrina Kaif’s sizzling looks in most of her films, is their make-up artist.

The Tolly team has three choreographers — Debashish, Bunty and Bappa. Nilanjan is in charge of costumes and Yunis of make-up.

EYE-CATCHER : Rakhi Sawant

The set

Mumbai-based art director Nitish Roy (Fanaa, Bride & Prejudice, Pukar) has created a lavish set in Madhyamgram. Two separate pavilions have been constructed for the two teams.

What Rituparna says

“Dance Pe Chance is the biggest reality show on Bengali television. Goutam Kundu of Rose Valley, for whom I had done Tarun Majumdar’s film Chander Bari, approached me with the show’s concept. I thought of going ahead as I have always been very passionate about dance.... I have earlier produced several dance shows, like Chitrangada, Shaapmochan and Chandalika. I was also the brand ambassador for ETV Bangla’s Ritur Mela Jhoom Tara Ra Ra. But Dance Pe Chance is on a much larger scale. Shiboprasad (Mukherjee), the show’s director, and I have designed the format.”

The Judges

Saroj Khan and Bickram Ghosh

Producerspeak

“We have been involved with film production for long and launching a channel is an extension of that. Though Rupashi Bangla will have both fiction and non-fiction programmes, Dance Pe Chance will be huge. It’s a very competitive market and we had to offer something novel in order to make a mark,” said Goutam Kundu, chairman, Rose Valley Productions.

Directorspeak

“Though I had directed Ritur Mela Jhoom Tara Ra Ra, Dance Pe Chance is being shot on a much grander scale. It will be one of the most interesting shows on Bengali TV ever,” promised Shiboprasad Mukherjee.