As the live audience of over five thousand cheered wildly at the Balewadi Sports Complex, Pune, millions of TV viewers from across India joined in the celebration from home as young Faisal Khan of Mumbai was declared the winner of Zee TV’s ‘Knorr Soupy Noodles DID L’il Masters powered by LR Active’! In an intense, nerve-racking finish, Faisal who belongs to Prince Ki Paltan was voted the winner by millions of fans from across the nation. The Grand Finale was telecast LIVE on Zee TV, 7 30 pm onwards. Actor Akshay Kumar was the star attraction at the glitzy evening along with Grandmaster Mithun Da, judges Marzi Pestonji and Geeta Kapur, ace choreographers Farah Khan and Terence Lewis. The winner was presented the coveted ‘KB3’ Cup.
Akshay Kumar who unveiled the first look of his forthcoming film 'Oh My God' at the Grand Finale of DID L'il Masters was so floored by the super-talented 5 finalists that he made all 5 of them an offer on the spot. He promised them a chance to be a part of an exciting promotional dance video of 'Oh My God'! Needless to say, the kids were thrilled to bits.
Not many 13-year-olds can claim to have fans in Bollywood, but Faisal Khan has done just that! And today with the winner’s hat perched firmly on his head, he has come out a winner far ahead of the rest! At the Mumbai audition, he left Master Geeta Kapur in tears with his brilliant performance. She wished that she was blessed with a child like Faisal and his inborn talent for dance. Abhishek Bachchan & Ritesh Deshmukh were raving about his fluid movements and charming expressions and have been following his progress on the show right from the audition. Whether it is his artistry with props or the ease with which he makes even the most complicated dance look simple, Faisal is one electric performer who has won himself a legion of dedicated fans!
The evening of the finale was marked by some breathtaking performances by each of the Top 5 finalists, their skippers and Masters Geeta Kapur and Marzi Pestonji. While Faisal paid tribute to the golden era of films in his performance, l’il Om was up to his tricks and stunts with a performance that featured malkhamb, lathis and … hold your breath … a human pyramid! Rohan's performance literally was electrifying as he made the lights on stage dance to the same tunes that he performed to. Soumya danced like a gorgeous doll with her performance that transformed the stage into a mini Chinatown complete with dragons, chinese lanterns and umbrellas. Jeet made sure that he paid his idol the ultimate tribute as he danced to a medley of Michael Jackson songs with a 15 foot statue of Michael Jackson appearing on stage. Each of the skippers too added their own flair and punch to performances of their own. While Prince took Raghav head on in a takkar set in a junkyard, Neerav and Kruti were joined by Terrence Lewis and “chik chik” girl Shreya in a lively medley of Chikni Chameli, Banjara and kombdi palali. In keeping with the theme that ran through the season, surprisingly, the mummies of each of the contestants also joined Jay Bhanushali and Marzi Pestonji on stage to dance to Aare Pritam Pyaare and Auntyji.
Commenting on the Grand Finale of the immensely successful show, Mr. Ashish Golwalkar, Head – Non-fiction Programming, Zee TV said, “Heartiest Congratulations to Faisal. With the latest season of DID L’il Masters, Dance India Dance, as a brand, has set new benchmarks in the realms of reality programming. The show has enjoyed an extremely consistent, week-on-week leadership over competition. Despite several reality shows featuring prominent Bollywood celebrities launching in its course, the show has towered head and shoulders above the rest purely on merit of content, the unadulterated innocence of these kids and their sheer brilliance as dancers. My best wishes to all the finalists for their future endeavors.”
The entire country watched the L’il Masters dance since its launch with dropped jaws and said a collective "Wow"! Zee TV’s DID L’il Masters premiered with a grand opening of 5.8 TVR and went on to soar even higher on television viewership charts with a fabulous 6.2 TVR in the second week of its telecast. And till date, these li’l powerhouses of talent have ruled the popularity charts, making the show the undisputed King of all reality shows. Swirling up a magical blend of jaw-dropping dance acts one could never have imagined kids to be able to perform, DID L’il Masters has been a delight to watch and very logically the ruler of the TRP charts!
Master Geeta Kapur and Marzi Pestonji have been the judges along with Grandmaster Mithun Dada. The talented children who made it to the ‘Top 16’ this year have been mentored, groomed and choreographed by their ‘Skippers’ who are popular contestants from the previous seasons of Dance India Dance. The skippers have been the king of Slow Motion dance - Raghav aka Crockroaz, the “Prince” of Locking and Popping from Season 1 of Dance India Dance, Neerav Bavlecha, the quintessential chocolate boy of DID Season 3 and Kruti Mahesh, the exceptionally gifted classical dancer from Season 2. Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sonakshi Sinha, Prabhudeva, Shahid Kapur, Priyanka Chopra, Abhishek Bachchan, Karisma Kapur, Ajay Devgn, Ritesh Deshmukh and Tushar Kapoor have been celebrity guests on the show and just haven’t been able to resist the charm of the li’l ones.
Another highlight was the staggering count of downloads that the DID L’il Masters mobile application generated. With attractive new features like LIVE chats with the masters and personalized dance tutorials by the skippers of the show, more than 3 Lakh smartphone users across the country downloaded the exciting app! Beyond providing users latest updates from the show at their fingertips, the newly introduced features that captured public imagination and upped the number of downloads were LIVE chats with the Masters and skippers, as well as the personalized dance tutorials from the four skippers on the show. The easy voting feature resulted in the contestants drawing a staggering 5,61,00,000 votes across the entire season.
Apart from the priceless exposure and the golden opportunity to showcase their talent in front of the country, the finalists of DID L’il Masters have walked away with a bounty of prizes. While the winner takes home a scholarship of Rs 10 Lakhs from LR Active and a gift hamper from Knorr Soupy Noodles, the first runner-up won a 5 Lakh scholarship and a gift hamper. The second runner-up received a scholarship of Rs 3 Lakhs and a gift hamper.
