It's a first! 'Nach Baliye 8' makers rope in professional agency to find contestants

Sanjeeda Sheikh and Aamir Ali in a previous season of the show

Sanjeeda Sheikh and Aamir Ali in a previous season of the show

Finding talent for a reality show is no mean feat, especially in its successive seasons. But, to make their job easier, producers of Nach Baliye have, in a first-of-its-kind move, roped in a casting agency to find them celeb dancing jodis.

Mukesh Chhabra, considered one of Bollywood's top casting directors, has been entrusted the responsibility of tracking down celebrity pairs to take part in the couple-based dance reality show.

Says Chhabra, "This is the first time that I am casting for a reality show. Earlier, I had done it for Amitabh Bachchan and Anurag Kashyap's Yudh, a fictional show. There will be an interesting bunch (of contestants on Nach Baliye) this year.

"The only problem we faced was when we would convince one partner, the other would disagree." He says the process took him nearly the same amount of time that it did for Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal (2016) for which over 10,000 girls were apparently auditioned to play his wrestler daughters.

There was a silver lining, though. "Ever since word spread that we were casting for Nach Baliye, we had several stars approaching us to be on the show," reveals Chhabra, who also helped get choreographer Terence Lewis on board as judge.

Like every season, Nach Baliye will have a mix of dancers and non-dancers this time too. So far, at least seven jodis have been locked. RJ Pritam and wife Amanjot are the latest to confirm their participation after telly couple Divyanka Tripathi and Vivek Dahiya, stand-up comics Bharti Singh and Haarsh Limbhachiyaa.

"We have already started rehearsing. While dancing is definitely not an easy task, we both are enjoying this new phase [in our lives]," Pritam says.