I heard a rumour

Over at Mid-day, Nandita Puri recalls her actor friend telling her "weeks in advance" that Mona Singh would win Jhalak Dikhlaja because Sony (the channel airing the show) wanted to give Ms. Singh a new, slicker look as against the nerdy Jassi.

And suddenly everything falls into place for the columnist. Everything, meaning all the timed and sustained negative publicity on Shveta Salve. These include news leaks that Shveta is a professional dancer, that she is arrogant and that she refused to part with 20% of prize money to her choreographer.

So here's the deal. The entire show was rigged to relaunch Mona Singh. And all those bechara other seven celebs had no idea they'd be booted out after each and every round. Or hang on, were they paid off ? You know, take the hit, get bumped off, for the larger cause of, er, the relaunch of Mona Singh?

Coincidentally at Nach Baliye2, drama reaches a new high with Manav and Shweta being accused of distributing SIM cards to friends and family to vote for them. A year earlier, the same show had Varun and Rajeshwari randomly stopping their dance mid-way in the finals due to stress, rumouredly so that the Pilgaonkars could win.

Yawn.

Someone at the channels and a whole lotta people at the press are having a field day. Anything goes, be it conspiracy theory, rumours or gossip. Get those TRPs up and justify those ad rates boss.

I doubt we'll ever know the truth. I couldn't care less and, in fact, I couldn't even see the final. To be frank, I wasn't really hanging by a thread to see who won. Sure I was rooting for Mona, I mean duh, who wasn't ? And even if Shveta had won, I wouldn't exactly go on a hunger strike.

The point is - the show had a nice format. I had fun watching celebrities goofing up their steps, then getting voted out sans excessive drama (except for Akashdeep who probably OD'ed but what the heck), rona-dhona, etc. etc.

So it was all rigged ? Whatever. What's next ? Bakhtyar and Tanaaz being caught (after winning NB2 of course) as having taken performance-enhancing drugs before every round of NB2? Now, we're talking.