With Season 3 of Cine Star Ki Khoj taking a bow with the finale at 9 pm today on Zee TV, the finalists tell Sangeeta Yadav about their most difficult acts and how the show is a once-in-a-lifetime experience

We’ve laughed at their one-liners and brilliant comic timing. Felt sad when they have been eliminated and celebrated with them when they have given a great performance. We have fallen in love with their beautiful dancing style and choreography. No matter what the contestants have done on Zee’s Cine Star Ki Khoj, the viewers have been with them all through.

Today, the five finalists will compete for the top spot. After 26 episodes, the show finally takes a bow with a grand finale. Out of the top six contestants — Meenu Panchal, Oksana Rasulova, Bhawna Barthwal, Akshay Nalawade, Syed Mamoon and Vikram Chatterjee, one will lift the trophy and get an opportunity to debut in a film written and mentored by Mahesh Bhatt.

The show which made a comeback after seven years with a new panel of judges — Vijay Krishna Acharya, Anurag Basu and Sonali Bendre, raised a lot of hopes for the amateur  actors who without any filmy background, struggle to make a mark in the industry. The entertainment quotient will go up a few notches with Shahid Kapoor shaking a leg with Dharmesh. One will also see lauren Gottlieb perform and  Rakesh Kumar and Upasana Singh will make one laugh with their gags.

Season 3 went on air on July 5, 2014 opened with a rating of 3.5 Television Viewership in Thousands (TVT) but slipped down to 2.6 to 1.6. But now that the show is coming to an end, the contestants are getting nostalgic.

“Cine Star... is the only platform which brings out the best in all art forms be it dance, music or drama. There are only one or two talent hunt shows on TV for the common man. The show is a great fusion of stage performance and reality show which is completely different from other shows. When one performs in theatre, one has to modulate one’s voice and body language. On this show, one faces the camera from different angles, so everything has to be correct — voice, expression and body language. There are no retakes. That was the biggest challenge for me,” Chatterjee says adding that one has to project larger than life character.

The wild card entrant who has worked in Tollywood on Saat Pake Bandha (a TV show) and films, opines that he has an added advantage. “I’ve been acting in Bangla movies for four years now, I’ve an upper hand when it comes to acting and facing the camera. I have been fortunate to work with some of the veteran filmmakers like Mainak Bhowmik, Bappaditya Bandopadhyay and Anjan Das. I now want to work in Bollywood and this show will hopefully help me achieve it,” Chatterjee says.

Hailing from a small town in Moradabad Uttar Pradesh, Syed Mamoon faced many of ups and downs. But his dream to become a  star kept him go on. “Kishore Kumar too faced many ups and downs so when I was asked to enact a dream role, I chose him,” Mamoon says adding that the show has transformed him into a method actor. “The credit for this change goes to the NSD mentors and the judges of the show,” Mamoon tells you.

For Bhawna Barthwal, being married and short height didn’t deter her from pursuing her dream. The 24-year-old from Uttarakhand is a fan of Shah Rukh Kahn and her favourite dialogue is — Agar kisi cheez ko puri shiddat se chaho, toh puri kayanaat usse aapse milvane par majboor ho jaati hai from the movie Om Shanti Om. “At one point during the show, I felt that I’ll lose. I used to get my script so late that there were hardly any time left for me to prepare my act. But sabar ka phaal meetha hota hai. That week I was given Superstar of the Week title. This show has taught me to be patience. The whole journey has been amazing. My husband has been my pillar of strength,” Barthwal says.

For Oksana Rasulova from Azerbaijan, Cine Star... helped to conquer her fear of heights and get regional dialect correct. “My Hindi is very bad and when I was asked to play a role of gaon ki gori, it was impossible for me to get the right dialect that too in just a day’s time. But my mentors helped me and my performance was appreciated by the judges. But the most difficult thing for me to do was to jump from a height. I was three when I fell off from the balcony and developed acrophobia. However, I managed to overcome that,” Oksana says.

And who is the performer who is most likely to win and one it told that Barthwal stands a good chance. Meenu Panchal tells you that Barthwal is definitely a winner. “She is very talented and a versatile actress. If there is one person who deserves to win, it is her. Others including Akshay Nalawade from Mumbai feels that Chatterjee has an edge since he is an established actor. He also tells you that acting and dancing go hand in hand. The best way to get exposure in both is the Cine Star... stage. “I have been struggling to debut as an actor but could not succeed. Through this show, I have managed to make a  start. The show has done a complete make-over — physical and mental,” Nalawade says.