Har ball pe sixer” is the promise with which the curtains went up on Dance India Dance Season 6 recently in Mumbai. Currently on air on Zee TV (Saturday and Sunday at 9pm) , the show is hosted by Sahil Khattar and Amruta Khanvilkar. t2 chatted up the debuting duo.

SAHIL KHATTAR

The YouTube sensation is a wacky stand-up comedian and talk show host, but few know that he is also a roller hockey (a type of hockey that’s played on a dry surface using wheeled skates) champion, with an international tournament podium finish on his CV. 

When did you start out on stage?

I always felt starved of popularity and attention in school. So I started doing sports, choir singing, plays, elocution, debate… I wanted to feel more accepted. I joined theatre at  15. My first radio show was at 17 in Chandigarh, called Love Guru. Running a top-notch YouTube channel (Being Indian) and being its face and now the host of Dance India Dance... who would have thought I could do all that! It was my childhood dream to host a big show. Now that the chance has come I want to become the best anchor ever.

What makes you so confident?

I have all the ingredients. I have written for TV, I have done back-end jobs, I have anchored in the digital space. Main ganja hoon! That’s okay. If the world’s biggest star — Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson — can be bald, why not me?  

When did you start playing roller hockey?

In school itself. My dad was a university-level badminton player. My mom is a PhD in music. I got arts and sports in my genes from them. Kaash sundarta bhi mujh mein aa jaati toh shayad main hero bann paata! (Laughs out loud)

What made you shift to entertainment full-time?

At 17, I got a bronze medal in the Asian Roller Skating Championship held at Jeonju city in South Korea.  I was also the highest goal scorer. But roller hockey is not well-known in our country, so how much recognition can a bronze medalist get? I was working eight hours a day, as hard as a cricketer or a footballer, but roller hockey did not have a future. So I decided to look elsewhere. When I started doing videos for the Net, at first I was getting messages from Rajkot, Kota, Ranchi, Ooty.... In three months, messages started coming from Qatar, Melbourne, Edmonton, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow… see the reach of the medium! 

A lot of curbs are being imposed on comedians in India now…

It’s scary. If such restrictions keep getting imposed, comedy will die an unnatural death. The challenge is to overcome these perimeters and do comedy. Like charity, humour should begin at home. Kapil Sharma jokes on his English and then goes ahead. If you start with jokes on yourself no one can take offence. I approach the audience not as an equal but a notch below. That makes them comfortable. But right now, I don’t think that hard-hitting insult kind of comedy has space here. The audience is not ready.

AMRUTA KHANVILKAR

The bubbly Marathi actress is truly a child of reality TV, having been discovered on the Zee TV talent hunt,  India’s Best Cinestars Ki Khoj, a decade back. She also won Nach Baliye 7. 

How has your journey been since India’s Best Cinestars Ki Khoj?

Amazing. To get a platform like Cinestars Ki Khoj on Zee TV was the turning point in my life. I am a simple Maharashtrian girl from Pune. I didn’t think in my wildest dream that I would be in the film industry. Trust me, the way I look is nothing like how I looked in 2004. All the credit goes to the way I have groomed myself. Tab main jaisi dikhti thi na people used to ask me, ‘Seriously, are you an actress?!’ I have been working with Zee for more 10 years now. 

This is your debut as anchor...

Yes. People will now see the real Amruta — laughing, cracking jokes, doing masti and obviously dancing. I never had an opportunity to have a guru in any specific form of dancing. DID will be my guru. I take pride in the fact that I am untrained. I am like a sponge. You give me anything, I will grasp it. When DID first came on air, I thought: ‘Why am I not contesting?’ Then I thought, ‘How can I be a contestant now that people know me as an actress?’

You had also found your life partner on Cinestars Ki Khoj...

Yes! I dated Himmanshoo (Malhotra) for 10 years. We are married for two years now. Zee has given me so much.