Celebrities spiced up music

New Delhi, Dec 26 (UNI) Spicing up dance and music based reality shows with the presence of Bollywood celebrities seems to have become a norm on television these days.

The fierce race among television channels to garner TRPs for their prime time shows at the weekends saw many of them rope in celebrities from the world of films and music as guests for their shows during the year gone by.

The year witnessed Bollywood celebrities as well as maestros from the world of music register their presence in reality shows like never before whether as guests on the programmes or as contestants making all-out efforts to outwit their competitors in their quest for 'Best Dancers', 'Best Singers' or 'Best Comedians'.

Bollywood actors, like Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Shahrukh Khan, John Abraham, Salman Khan, Bipasha Basu, Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Akshay Khanna, Sanam Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Diya Mirza and Boman Irani among other, and filmmakers like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Vivek Agnihotri and Anubhav Sinha and celebrities from the world of music like Lata Mangeshkar, Hridyanath Mangeshkar, Jagjit Singh, Khayyam, Pritam, Salim Suleiman and Amit Kumar graced many reality shows as celebrity guests, including music reality shows like 'Indian Idol', 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge, 2007, 'Star Voice of India', 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs' and 'Voice of India Chhote Ustad' and dance reality shows like 'Nach Baliye' and 'Jhalak Dikhla Ja'.

The year also witnessed celebrities like Music directors Jatin Pandit and Aadesh Srivastava, singers Akriti Kakkar, Suresh Wadekar, Madhushree, Sanjeevni and Mika, actors like Sonali Kulkarni, Sandhya Mridul, Prachi Dasai, Shekhar Suman, Mrinal Kulkarni, Roshni Chopra, Shweta Tiwari and others participate in Music and dance reality shows like Sony TV's 'Jhalak Dikhla Ja', Star's 'Nach Baliye' and Sahara's 'Jhoom India' as contestants vying for the title of 'Best Singer' or 'Best Dancers'.

For instance, the second edition of its 'Jhalak Dikhla Ja' on Sony boasted of presence of celebrities like renowned Indian hockey coach and inspiration for the highly successful 'Chak De India' Mihir Ranjan Negi, Indian idol host Mini Mathur, TV actors Sandhya Mridul, Prachi Desai, Sudha Chandran, Ronit Roy and Jay Bhanushali, TV prankster Cyrus Broacha, Punjabi singer Mika, music director Aadesh Srivastava and film actor Sonali Kulkarni.

Participating in the third edition of Star's popular show 'Nach Baliye' as contestants were TV actors Aamir Ali, Sanjeeda Sheikh, item girls Rakhi Sawant and Kashmira Shah, film actor and socialite Pooja Bedi and yesteryears' villain Shakti Kapoor among others.

Sahara's 'Jhoom India' show, where professional singers have been paired with actors in the battle for the best 'singing jodi', features many a celebrity couple like singer Vinod Rathod and Roshni Chopra, music director Jatin Pandit and actor Chhavi Mittal, singer Akriti Kakar and actor Varun Badola, singer Vaishali Samant and actor Sharad Kelkar, singer Parthiv Gohil and actor Apara Mehta, singer Madhushree and actor Sachin Tyagi, singer Sanjeevni and actor Shekhar Suman, singer Sudesh Bhosle and actor Mrinal Kulkarni, singer Jolly Mukherjee and Shama Sikander and singer Mika and actor Shweta Tiwari.

Trade analysts said celebrity guests appearing on various music and dance reality shows helps generate the much needed TRPs for the channels.

Whether it be, Madhuri Dixit or Shahrukh Khan appearing as a celebrity guest in the show or a celebrity like hockey coach Mihir Ranjan Negi Participating as a contenstant of the reality show, it all helps to increase the TRP ratings of the show.

For example, presence of 90s diva, Madhuri Dixit on the finale of Star Voice of India helped the channel notch up a TRP of 7.3 while her presence of 'Nach Balye III' got the programme a TRP of 4.16.

Similarly, John and Bipasha's presence on 'Nach Baliye III' generated TRPs of 4.74 for Star Plus while their presence in 'Voice of India' led to TRP ratings of 3.24 for the episode. Further, 'Nach Balye III'episode which had Shahrukh as a celebrity guest notched a TRP of 4.04.

It is also pertinent to note that the presence of celebrities as participants in 'Nach Baliye III' on Star Plus and 'Jhalak Dikhla Ja' on Sony entertainment network have made these reality shows the top five ranking shows on these channels in terms of TRPs.

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