Sourabh Raaj Jain, who has just been eliminated from the Star Plus couple dance reality show, Nach Baliye, has taken off for a vacation along with family (mother, wife and kids).
“This off time was needed, for both Ridhima (better half) and I had really broken our backs to get into the Nach groove. It was tougher for her as she is not from the industry, so had to get used to camera and other things.”
He has no regrets over being eliminated. “Despite both of us being non-dancers, to have reached 13 out of 15 performing weeks is no mean task. We have really grown as dancers, and here I admit that the wife is better than me.”
“The biggest take home for us is the line never say die. Who would have thought that we would last so long? This will only encourage us to explore more uncharted territories.”
Ask who among the remaining Jodis (Prince Narula – Yuvika Choudhary, Rohit Reddy – Anita Hassanandani and Vishal Aditya Singh – Madhurma Tuli) might win the trophy and he says, “While it is very difficult to predict, just on pure dance, I would put my money on Shantanu Maheshwari and Nityaami Shirke.”
When asked about the other controversies surrounding the show, he says, “I really don’t know, for during my entire stint, I was fully focused only on putting my best dancing foot forward, so did not pay attention to other things.” We then asked him point blank about the buzz suggesting that Shantanu and Nityaami were not a couple, to which he diplomatically replied, “I have not heard about it.”
He also refused to comment on the recent fracas between judge Ahmed Khan and the choreographers, leading to shooting being held up. “I had heard about it but it happened after my exit, so was not around.”
Looking ahead, Sourabh is looking for more juicy fiction lead characters. His last show was Sony historical, Chandragupta Maurya. “It was a challenge to essay the evil emperor Nanda after playing Lord Shiva in my earlier show, Mahakali – Anth Hi Aarambh Hai.” He was also the voice-over/narrator in Karmaphal Daata Shani and RadhaKrishn.
In closing, he did not rule out playing a male daayan or chudail in fantasy offerings. “Let’s face it, this stuff sells, and for me, more than the genre, what matters is what I am doing on screen.”