Season six of India's Got Talent drew to a close on Saturday with aerial dancer Manik Paul from Arunachal Pradesh walking away with the top prize.
Paul, whose performance to the sound of Nahi Saamne, a song from the 1999 Bollywood movie Taal, received a standing ovation from the audience and the judges, went home with 5 million rupees (Dh290,000) and a car.
Hosted by actor Sidharth Shukla and comedienne Bharti Singh, and judged by filmmaker Karan Johar and actresses Kirron Kher and Malaika Arora Khan, the sixth season of the Indian reality-television contest was shown on Colors TV and brought together talent from across the country.
Among the other five finalists, the standouts were shadow artiste Prahlad Acharya from Bengaluru, who delivered a skit on women’s empowerment, and Harmanpreet Kaur and Parry G from Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, whose Bollywood/rap fusion mash-up performance got the crowd – including Johar – grooving. The other three were Yogeshwari Mistry, a gymnast/ aerial artist, and two dance groups, X1X and Beat Breakers.
The season finale was packed with celebrity guests, and the judges also gave impromptu performances. Kher took to the stage twice, once with Shukla to dance to a medley of tracks including Darling, and later with her actor husband, Anupam Kher. Arora Khan delivered a scintillating performance to tracks Bang Bang! and Desi Look.
Even the contestants performed in the final celebrations. Paul and Mistry joined Elli Avram of Bigg Boss fame to perform Sun Saathiya from the recently released Bollywood movie ABCD2, which got everyone to their feet, and prompted Johar to remark that he didn't want the performance to stop.
Parry G and Kaur jammed with rap artist Raftaar, while X1X and Beat Breakers danced with actor Faisal Khan, who was promoting his appearance as a contestant in the next season of the reality TV show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa Reloaded.
Another highlight of the final was the Bollywood-style recap of the season, enacted by Johar, Arora Khan, Kher, Singh and Shukla as hero, heroine, mother, hero's sister and her love interest, respectively. The voting lines were open for 20 minutes during the show, which followed the international Got Talent reality-TV competition format, where contestants audition for the judges and audience. The judges decide who proceeded to the semi-final but after that, voting was in the hands of the audience and viewers.
Paul had been a firm favourite throughout the season, with each of his performances garnering praise from the audience, judges and the celebrity guests, including Bollywood choreographer Remo D’Souza.
artslife@thenatoinal.ae
