The suspense is over. Shweta Tiwari and Raja Chaudhary are the Wildcard Round winners on Nach Baliye 2.

Earlier ousted by their co-contestants, the couple scored 29 points during the Wildcard episode, featuring alongside other also-rans like Narayani-Gaurav, Ketaki-Rasik, Gurdip-Arjun and Keerti-Sharad.

Gut feeling
An elated Raja says, “We had a gut feeling that we would be back.”
Shweta chooses to put it diplomatically. “I think it was a three-horse race. Ketaki-Rasik and Narayani-Gaurav could have pipped us. In fact, I heard that Narayani-Gaurav garnered a lot of votes.”

While Raja headed straight to his shoot (for the DD serial Gam Hai Na), Shweta sped off to Urban Tadka in Kandivali along with her daughter and mother. “We had dinner there and had lots of fun. Our choreographer Sagar and his assistant also joined us,” enthuses the actress.
The couple did not have an easy time, though. Shweta developed an eye infection as she hadn’t removed her contact lenses for four days.

Blurred victory
She had to dance without her lenses instead. “She couldn’t wear spectacles because it would have been very inconvenient,” says Raja.
Explaining her eye infection, Shweta says, “I was shooting and practicing simultaneously, and had not slept properly. Soon, my eye developed red patches. The eye specialist who treated me said if I had come to him 12 hours later, my vision would have been seriously affected.”

So what did Shweta do when she learnt about their comeback? “Nothing! I couldn’t see Raja when I moved away from him while dancing, and I couldn’t see the judges while I waited for their points. So basically, I couldn’t react to anything!”

The duo is now optimistic of winning the title. “I can’t say if we will win or not. It’s not going to be easy. But yes, we’ll put our best foot forward,” says Raja.

The not-so-lucky ones

Narayani Shastri: Shweta’s re-entry was a foregone conclusion. Gaurav and I are not surprised. I don’t want to get into whether it was fair or unfair. At the end of the day, a show is being made. It’s business. They know who to promote and who not to promote. I had fun and I got paid for it. That’s how I would like to remember this. I was never emotionally involved with Nach Baliye. So where’s the question of feeling hurt?

Rasik Dave: Shweta is very popular and a terrific dancer. Some of the steps are shown to her just minutes before her performance and she has no problems emulating them with perfection. Dancing comes naturally to her, so she deserves to be back. In fact, when she was eliminated, I called her to say that Ketaki and I stood no chance of returning to the competition.

Narayani and Gaurav had a good chance, but they were a bit too aggressive. We had a chance but the Reliance problem spoilt it all. Saroj Khan asked me if I knew those who were responsible for it. I told her that if I knew, I would have filed a police complaint.

Gurdip Kohli:  
Raja is not a great dancer, but Shweta covers up for him extremely well. She is a terrific dancer. We all had a gut feeling that Shweta and Raja would be the Wildcard winners.

Keerti Gaekwad: Shweta and Raja scored the highest points from the judges, and I knew they would make it. But from the bottom of my heart, I wanted Narayani and Gaurav to return.