'Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 6' sets off, Lauren Gottlieb scores highest

High on glamour and entertainment, the sixth season of "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa" (JDJ) kicked off at the weekend with entertaining dance performances by 11 contestants and their choreographers with international dancer-actress Lauren Gottlieb scoring highest marks at the opening gala.

This year there will be 13 contestants including Eijaz Khan, who couldn't perform on the opening night due to injuries, and former cricket skipper Krishnamachari Srikkanth, who is likely to join the competition from this weekend.

Riding high on "Kai Po Che" success, Sushant Singh Rajput, who made a successful transition from TV to movies, set the mood with his high voltage dance act. The first runner-up of "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 4", Sushant also introduced all the female contestant of season six, while actress Jacqueline Fernandez welcomed the male contestants.

Remo D'Souza, one of the judges on the show, led the choreographers team that has Salman Yusuff Khan, Tushar Kalia, Sonia Jaffer, Sneha Kapoor, Savio Barnes, Marischa Fernandes, Punit Pathak, Cornel Rodrigues, Vivek Chachere, Suchitra Sawant and Sushant Pujari.

If that was not enough, another judge, director-producer Karan Johar intensified the entertainment quotient with his performance on "Na jaane kahan se aaie hai..." from the film "Chaalbaaz" and the icing on the cake was Madhuri Dixit's dance act with acclaimed Kathak dancer Pandit Birju Maharaj.

There as an interesting tadka of Bollywood with Ranbir Kapoor, and the three Deols - Dharmendra and his two sons - Sunny and Bobby joining the judges.

Ranbir, whose "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani" is rocking the box office, jived with Madhuri on the track "Ghaghra" from his film. In fact, the song originally stars two of them.

Madhuri is the third judge of the show.

The dance reality show will showcase the dancing abilities of Drashti Dhami, Shweta Tiwari, Karanvir Bohra, Siddharth Shukla, Meghna Malik, Suresh Menon, Ekta Kaul, Lauren Gottlieb, who was also seen in the dance film "A.B.C.D.", singer Shaan, actress Aarti Chabaria and "India' Got Talent" winners Sonali and Sumant, Eijaz and Srikkanth.

In previous seasons, opening episodes used to be just an introduction round, but the sixth season has come with a new twist and the judges rated contestants performances rated from the very first show.

The show airs Saturday and Sunday at 9 p.m. on Colors.