Apart from an internship 20 years ago, and during a season of MasterChef India, where he appeared as judge, Kalra has never received a paycheck. “I have always been the one signing them. It’s been new to mould my schedule around someone else’s and to accept the conditions that come with being a contestant, including surrendering your phone while shooting. I have never been without my phone.”

The first episode of the show which aired last week saw Kalra having fun as he performed to a Punjabi-Bollywood choreography to the track Jug Jug Jiyo before a judges panel led by Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Karan Johar and Nora Fatehi. “But truth to be told”, he says, “I said no when the show was offered to me. When it comes to dance, I am a novice.” The only dancing Kalra had done was at a friend’s sangeet “where it was okay to forget my steps”. And sometimes, he says he has shaken a leg at a club. “When I was 22, and in Boston pursuing an MBA degree, we all went to a pub to party. I can’t remember the occasion; perhaps a semester had ended. I danced with abandon after a few drinks. This is a different ball game altogether,” he says of the competition.

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Kalra is pitted against nine contestants, most of them television actors who have had far better experience with stage presence, emoting and dancing. He says it took a second attempt by the production team for him to take the proposal home for a discussion. “My son [Fateh Kalra], obviously, petrified at being embarrassed in front of school friends, said, ‘no, don’t do it at all’ [laughs]. But Dildeep [wife] was very supportive. She said, ‘You have always been the person who takes on new challenges; you should definitely do it’.” He admits he was also apprehensive about how his staff would react to his decision. “How will I look [to them]? Will I be taken seriously? I have to go back to my normal life after the show. But they have been supportive. Staffers I haven’t met sent me messages to say they are proud, and that they are cheering for me with their families.”

Discussions done, Kalra has a new challenge to tackle. The pandemic had put a stop to his gymming and golf sessions. “Dance is a physical challenge. There is so much movement involved in just a two or three-minute performance; you feel like you have sprinted! It is physically taxing. Dancers ought to be flexible, which I’m not. I don’t intend to suddenly change my lifestyle and become super flexible. In fact, I injured my knee quite seriously at the start; and this, despite warming up well before every rehearsal session. Thankfully, it wasn’t a ligament tear!”

Kalra says he’d pick starting a new restaurant over a dance challenge any day. That he and Sawant would dance in front of ceiling to floor mirrors meant that he could see exactly what his body was not doing. “Sometimes, I thought I looked weird doing those steps. Every performance has multiple sequences and it’s also difficult to memorise them. If I had known it would be this hard, I would have bounced. But I had committed, and I don’t quit.”

Over the weeks, he said he learnt to practice long enough for muscle memory to kick in. The good bit? His cardiovascular health is improving and the recovery time between exercise sessions is improving. He gives the credit for this to Sawant. “She is the reason I am able to perform decently. She has been working very hard [on me], and I feel responsible. She intelligently comes up with acts that suit me, and those I will enjoy,” says Kalra, who in the week we spoke to him, was getting acquainted with tutting, a street dance style involving angular movements.

“Today, I woke up at 6 am, and by 9, I had finished half the day’s work [to make time for rehearsals].” Good habits are bringing him the benefits. A partying ban is on; he sleeps early to allow his body to recover, and is mindful of what he eats. Low carb- high-protein diet packed with vegetarian food and lean protein is what he is practicing. “But I do end up drinking a lot of coffee to feel energised. I have a competitive personality but I am also a realist. I know I can’t win the trophy. I am here to represent the non-dancer and have people believe that it’s okay to get out of your comfort zone.”

Kalra’s father and the man known as the czar of Indian cuisine, chef and restaurateur  Jiggs Kalra, passed on in 2019. How would he have reacted to his son’s decision? “My father was a quiet cheerleader. He wouldn’t ever boast about his son, but he would’ve been happy that I showed some courage. He would’ve watched every episode.”

Food and dance

Kalra says that cooking and dance are both expressions of human art and the spirit. What food is for the body, dance is for the soul. Obviously, we need food to survive. But dance too has existed since the beginning of human civilisation.