Harbhajan, Mona Singh are 'Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena' winners

New Delhi, Oct 25 (IANS) Cricketer Harbhajan Singh and TV actress Mona Singh's power-packed Punjabi performance in the grand finale of the dance reality show "Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena" helped them bag the award for the best dancers on the show.

The duo danced on the popular, fast and catchy number "Nagaada nagaada baja" from the hit film "Jab We Met". The Sikh background of each of them gave them an advantage to add the right flavour to the performance and left the judges - cricketer Wasim Akram and actress Sushmita Sen - spellbound.

While Sushmita said it was a good victory for the couple, Mona said: "Harbhajan has been a rockstar partner."

The show aired on channel Colors and had six couples - a cricketer teamed with a TV actress in each case - competing on the dance floor.

The other participants were S. Sreesanth-Surveen Chawla, Nigaar Z. Khan-Dinesh Karthik, Vinod Kambli-Shama Sikander, Nikhil Chopra-Barkha Bisht and Irfan Pathan-Ashima Bhalla.

For the grand finale, Harbhajan and Mona were competing against S. Sreesanth-Surveen and Nigaar-Dinesh.

The winning couple was awarded a trophy and a cheque of Rs.2,500,000.

Harbhajan and Mona's stint on the five-week long show wasn't free of controversy. In one of the episodes, Harbhajan danced in the role of demon-king Ravan and Mona danced with him as Sita, Hindu god Lord Ram's wife who was abducted by Ravan.

Many Hindu organizations had objected to the dance, saying Ravan could not be shown dancing with Sita. The Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs in Amritsar, had also objected to Harbhajan hurting sentiments of Hindus and even Sikhs.

But the two had apologised for the act and sailed through till the end to win the show.

• Television