It was a big day for Meiyang Chang. The Chinese Indian dentist-turned-singer-turned-actor won the dance reality show ‘Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 4’ on March 8 and the prize of Rs.50 lakhs, which he will share with his choreographer Marischa Fernandes.
He outperformed TV actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who had been pipped to win, and Yana Gupta, the Czech-born model-actress, who wowed everyone with her graceful dance moves.
"It’s been a very nice journey. I never thought I’ll stick around till the end. With such a good partner and the judges encouraging us so much, along with some hard work, we reached here. I’m very happy to be the winner and to be here," Meiyang, whose forefathers lived in China’s Hubei province, said after the win.
The 28-year-old’s brush with fame began with his singing talent and when he participated in ‘Indian Idol 3’ in 2007 but couldn’t win it. He then returned to ‘Indian Idol’ as the host of the fourth season, and he later became a presenter for the second season of the Indian Premier League in South Africa.
As an actor, he got a major break with Yash Raj Films’ ‘Badmaash Company’, but the film didn’t do too well.
During his stint on ‘Jhalak….’, Chang, a non-dancer, showed tremendous improvement.
Madhuri Dixit judged the show with Malaika Arora Khan and choreographer Remo D’Souza.
The highlight of the finale was Madhuri’s superb performance on ‘Que sara sara’ and ‘Tamma tamma’ choreographed by Remo.
"All three were my favourites and any of these guys winning wouldn’t have been a surprise for me because all of them are very good, especially Meiyang, because the show is all about people who turn into dancers from being non-dancers. So Meiyang was a great example of that," said Remo.
"There was this thing when Sushant was performing brilliantly episode after episode but in the last episode, Chang scored more than him. This is a competition, a race, the person who plays the last shot brilliantly is the star and Meiyang did brilliantly in the finale episode," he added.(IANS)
