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Home truths
Quite like Bollywood, reality TV shows have become family ventures with one success story inspiring the rest to try their luck. Nilanjana Nag meets two such families whose lives were changed, thanks to TV
Guess who has 5,000 pending friend requests on Facebook? Dance India Dance finalist Shakti Mohan. The 25-year-old is loving every bit of the attention. Even as she prepares for her
grand finale at Film City, her father and younger sister Mukti, 23, are busy attending to messages from fans. "Shakti didi's friends call me her slave now," chuckles Mukti, "Dad helps me too but sometimes he sends rude replies to people praising other contestants; he can be silly at times!"
Playing the supportive sister apart, Mukti is also trying to be a celeb in her own right. And she has taken the same route that her two elder didis did - reality TV. Her ticket to stardom is another dance show Zara Nachke Dikha, which she joined recently. The path for the duo was paved by Neeti, the eldest of the four sisters, who entered the industry at 22, taking part in Popstars on Channel V some years ago, and later Music Ka Maha Muqabla (MKMM) on Star Plus. In another part of the city, the 'Saiyaan ve' brothers, Toshi and Sharib Sabri, are busy planning their new music compositions. They too started their careers with reality TV and moved on to playback singing. So what is it about music and dance shows that have changed their fortunes?
Dreamcatchers
The Mohan sisters pursued singing and dancing while studying in a boarding school in Rajasthan, but they had no plans to turn their talent into careers until Neeti auditioned for Popstars. Mukti remembers going with Shakti at 6 am, in peak Delhi winter, so that Neeti could audition first, "We landed up that early, even then Neeti didi was 11th in queue! She always thought that these talent shows were rigged. We had to push her a lot before she agreed to audition."
It was the best decision in retrospect, for Neeti won Popstars leading to the formation of the band Aasma. She's been touring the world with them, performing at different concerts, a recent AR Rahman one being her dream-come-true favourite.
But a career in music meant moving to Mumbai. "It wasn't easy living alone. While my sisters in school would cheer for me watching my song play, I was missing my family," Neeti recalls.
That's when her father found a job in Mumbai and the sisters too, back from boarding school, took admission in Xavier's College. From then on, it was full time music
and dance. Mukti says, "Shakti
didi and I performed
during Malhar, and Terence Lewis offered us vouchers to learn dance for free. Everyday, we would catch the 6.49 am train from Malad to Churchgate (College), rush to Juhu for dance class before reaching home. We had one cell phone between us. Shakti didi and I would conceptualise, choreograph, copy moves from contemporary dance videos."
It was only a matter of time before reality shows beckoned. Interestingly, Shakti says she initially wanted to be an IAS officer. "All my friends in Delhi University had the same ambition! But in Mumbai, I encountered youngsters who were all creative. No one wanted to study," she laughs. "And Dance India Dance changed my life." Mukti has similar hopes from Zara Nachke Dikha.
With three of the four sisters finding their calling in music shows, proud father Brij Mohan Sharma, has switched to writing poetry and interpreting the Bhagwat Gita. "There was a time when my society people in Delhi used to say, 'Teri beti Neeti shaadiyon mein naachti hai,' but today I'm proud of all my daughters. They're out of the nest and have all taken flight."
Does he worry about their marriage ever? He replies, "My daughters are birds, not kites. Strings don't tie them down."
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