Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 13, 2017)

When actor-producer Mithun Chakraborthy, who plays ‘grandmaster’ on the popular dance reality show, Dance India Dance, was told that Mia Michaels who worked on the 2012 hit dance-drama Step Up Revolution and bagged a Primetime Emmy for Best Choreography for her work on the American reality show So You Think You Can Dance, was coming on the show, he instantly googled her. And after reading up on the celebrated dancer online, he was completely gaga over her.

The two shot for over 12 hours at a stretch at a suburban studio on Tuesday with Mithun raving that Mia’s presence made this one of the best episodes of season six. He went on to give her an introduction to Indian culture which included binging on pani puri and a chai session during which he taught her how to slurp tea from the saucer while making an appreciative “furrr” sound. When judge Mini Pradhan draped Mia in a sari, the veteran actor raved about how beautiful she looked after which she shook a leg to R… Rajkumar’s chartbuster, “Saree Ke Fall Sa”. Mia also matched steps with ‘Master’ Mini to “Kajrare” and swung to “Dhinka Chika” with ‘Master’ Muddassar.

Mithun, gallant as ever, took Mia’s hand on stage and kissed her and happy to have found a fan in him, she pecked him back at the end of the show. “Everybody calls me dada, but I made sure she does not make me her dada,” Mithun guffawed after pack-up.