It all started with thousands of incredibly talented young children landing up at the auditions of the first two seasons of India’s biggest dance reality show ‘Dance India Dance’ and performing with such zeal and fervour that it became heart-wrenching for the judges to send them back home, only because they were not old enough to participate in DID. Zee TV, then, decided it was time to give a platform to these talented kids to showcase their dancing skills and DID L’il Masters was born!
Following the phenomenal success of the first season of DID Li’l Masters which premiered in April 2010 with a spectacular, record-breaking opening of 6.7 TVR for the very first episode and consistently enjoyed high viewership, Zee TV is back with a second season of the show that established, once and for all, that it is the children of this country who are the real ‘Dance ke Baap’! After some awe-inspiring dance acts by the little powerhouses of talent week-on-week and the lovely camaraderie they enjoyed with the judges and skippers in the first season, the show is back once again with twice the fun, double the drama and just pure, unadulterated dance. And this season, the L’il Masters have vowed to perform with such unbridled energy, flair and flamboyance that the audience will gulp and say, “yeh badon ke bass ki baat nahin!”
Knorr Soupy Noodles DID Li’l Masters will premiere on April 28 on Zee TV. The show will air at the weekend primetime slot of 9 PM every Saturday and Sunday on Zee TV, replacing Season 3 of Dance India Dance that is currently on air. While Master Geeta Kapur and Marzi Pestonji have been roped in to co-judge the dance reality show, the talented children who make it to the ‘Top 16’ kids this year will be mentored, groomed and choreographed by popular contestants from the previous seasons of Dance India Dance who will step in as ‘Skippers’ on the show. The skippers include the current rage… 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. The Grandmaster of the DID family Mithun Da will make surprise appearances on the show, showering his blessings on the kids.
Master Marzi and Geeta Kapur along with Master Terence Lewis have been touring major cities across the country in search of fresh talent for the latest season of the show. Auditions, this year, have brought to light some completely unheard of dancing phenomena including baby belly dancers, tiny salsa dancers, little queens of hula hoop, kids adept at dancing with rollerblades, young boys who play with fire and perform all kinds of unthinkable stunts that most adults would shy away from. There have also been interesting cases such as that of a young patient of pneumonia who danced on the very next day of being discharged from a hospital, children whose parents do not support their passion for dance and insist that they work at a tender age to add to the household income and children who dance like a dream despite physical disabilities. All in all, the journey of auditions has been one of experiencing every child’s fervour for dance.
Taking into cognizance that the younger demographic which constitutes the core target audience of the show is extremely active in the digital space, Zee TV has unleashed a highly interactive online marketing campaign. The best video clips from the auditions have already gone viral on Youtube. A separate channel invites young children to upload their clips of dance, the best amongst which will be featured as a part of the title montage of the show that will change every week, giving every talented child in the country a chance to see himself dancing on national television. There will be clips with intricately choreographed dance acts performed by the L’il Masters that will challenge the adults in the audience. Clips of the best performances posted by adults will stand to be gratified by the channel.
Ashish Golwalkar, Head, Non-fiction Programming, Zee TV said, “Given the runaway success of the first season which consistently enjoyed high viewership, we decided to bring back a second edition of the show. This season will again be all about the magic of the kids! Their innocence and sheer talent are bound to win over the hearts of the audience. On our part, the judges will be extremely careful about the kind of feedback they give to the contestants. All through our auditions as well, our masters have given constructive criticism, if any, ONLY to the parents/teachers of the kids and not to the kids directly. We believe that every child should be encouraged to grow and their journey on the show should be one of eternal hope!”
DID L’il Masters will be produced by Frames Production Company, the production house credited with the success of Season 3 of Dance India Dance.
Get prepared for an explosion of dancing talent as Knorr Soupy Noodles DID Li’l Masters premieres on Saturday, April 28 at 9 PM, only on Zee TV.