Teriya Magar with Grandmaster Mithun Chakraborty at the DID finale

And the winner of Dance India Dance Li’ Champ is... from Nepal! Eleven-year-old Teriya Magar became the first foreign winner of Zee TV’s popular dance reality show, of which the third season for children concluded recently.

Little Teriya’s crowning by the show’s Grandmaster Mithun Chakraborty and judges Geeta Kapoor and Ahmed Khan, telecast live on the channel, stands testament to a child’s determination and a family’s faith in her abilities that made it stretch its means to back her.

“My father works as a waiter in a Dubai hotel. My mother makes momos in the school where I study,” says Teriya in a telephonic conversation with t2. The nimble-footed girl who lives in the remote Rudrapur region in southern Nepal, a day’s journey from Kathmandu, had been following Dance India Dance for a while. So when she noticed the scroll at the bottom of the TV screen announcing the audition venues for the contest, she pleaded with her family to let her travel to faraway Mumbai. “All the neighbours said it would be a waste of money and they would be mad to listen to a girl. But my family felt I deserved a chance,” recalls Teriya, the younger of two daughters.

One morning, her grandfather set off with her to cross the border at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and then board a train to Mumbai. It helped that an uncle stayed there, in Vashi. It was Teriya’s first India visit. She crossed the two initial rounds there, and then cleared the final screening which took place in Delhi.

Since then it has been a dream run. So clued in is she about showbiz that she even recognised “Ram Kapoor bhaiya of Bade Achhe Lagte Hain”, when the chubby actor visited the DID sets with Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh to promote Humshakals.

The six months flew by as she picked up new styles — contemporary, hip hop, Indo salsa — and even won a Natraj statuette from Geeta ‘Ma’ for excelling in an aerial act. Never did she feel homesick. “There were many Nepalese participants from India,” she said, naming Darjeeling girl and fellow finalist Anushka Chetri as the closest friend she made on the show.

To witness her moment of glory, her entire family — including her father from Dubai — had been flown over as guests, leaving her thrilled to bits.

Teriya, nicknamed Bacteria on the show, knows her success will inspire others from her country to try their luck in Indian TV talent hunts. But she had no idea that one Manisha Koirala from her country had already marked the Nepal-to-Bollywood track. “Yes, I want to be like her,” she decided, wide-eyed.

All set to return home, she hopes to be promoted to Class VI despite missing classes for six months. “I am the class topper,” she smiles. If a career in choreography or acting doesn’t work out, she wants to be a doctor.

Sudeshna Banerjee