Abhishek Awasthi. Picture by Amit Datta

Abhishek Awasthi, ejected from Zee TV’s dance reality show Ek Se Badhkar Ek, was all rant and rave. “Let the two of us dance non-stop. Main aise show chhodke nahin janewala,” he was thundering, as the camera finished canning the round in which he was edged out after a face-off with Kushal Punjabi. That was July and t2 was witness to how choreographer-judge Ahmed Khan had to use his powers of persuasion to control Rakhi Sawant’s consort.

“But the channel had to bring me back within a week on a wild card,” says Abhishek, on the eve of a Calcutta trip. “I am back, aur bhi khatarnak iraade le kar. Ab mera ek hi junoon — jeetna hai.” This time his singing partner is Meenal Jain in place of Sumedha Karmahe. But he doesn’t care who his teammate is as long as he gets a stage to scorch with sizzling steps.

Though judges have rated him and Kushal as equals, the plucky Abhishek has no place for competition in his mind. “Janta dekh rahi hai kaun behtar hai,” he says, pointing out how he was the first among the dancers to score a perfect 10. The pint-sized powerhouse is a Salman Khan fan. Perhaps that is why he did a half-monty in a towel in the presence of Salman’s lady love Katrina Kaif in a recent episode of Ek Se Badhkar Ek. Did he work out in anticipation of the day? “Whoever is a Salman fan would focus on body-building and would never be shy of taking off his shirt,” he counters.

He may be dancing for Katrina but that would not erase his Rakhi Sawant connection. He claims to have fallen for the woman of volcanic ways for her “simplicity and honesty” on the sets of a film four years ago in which the two were the lead pair. The film never got released but the world has not stopped seeing and hearing the twosome since. He admits that the industry got to know him quicker because of the relationship but he fights claims that it has helped his career as well.

“An artiste’s life is an open book. Like Salman or Shah Rukh, I have nothing to hide,” he sums up loftily. Was the Valentine’s Day squabble — or slabble! — in which Rakhi hit him when he landed upon her doorstep with TV cameras in tow a staged one? “Next question, please,” he quickly ducks.