TLI Staff
New Delhi: Sumanth Maroju (20) and Sonali Majumdar (15) who have entered the finale of America’s Got Talent Season 15, set to air on September 22 (Tuesday) promised they will do only bad salsa and went on to sweep judges (Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara and Simon Cowell) off their feet with their super-fast almost unbelievable dance moves that are mostly a mix of acrobats, hip hop, trapeze along with salsa.
The breathtaking moves no wonder left all the judges awe-struck. Simon Cowell thought he was watching a movie with fast forward button on, while Howie said it’s dangerous, fast and entertaining and even though their dance group is named Bad Salsa, their performance was anything but bad, Heidi got excited with the speed of the steps and couldn’t takes her eyes off them while Sofia Vergara too wanted to join them on stage mesmerised with their energy.
For the quarter final round, Bad Salsa performed virtually to the iconic dance number ‘Tattad Tattad’ and in the semi-finals they danced to the tune of famous South Indian song Top Lesi Poddi.
And yes, Sumanth and Sonali explained that BAD in Bad Salsa is the acronym for Bivash academy of dance (BAD), a small dance institute in Kolkata, founded by their mentor Bivash Choudhary. The signature moves that are garnering so much love from the international audience is devised by Choudhary.
The talented duo were all of 13 and 7 respectively when they first participated in and won India’s Got Talent, judged by Karan Johar, Kirror Kher, Malaika Arora. Their moves initially were slower than what we are seeing presently but over eight years the speed looks unreal and moves perfectly in sync with each other.
Sumanth hails from Bhubaneshwar and joined the academy when he was not even a teenager. His father is a railway employee and sent his son to the institute after seeing his future in the field.
Sonali on the other hand came from Bonga, a small village in West Bengal on India-Bangladesh border. Her father was a farmer and earned a meagre amount which was not enough even for food. He realised well in time that she did not have any future in the small village and seeing her interest in dance started taking her to BAD. After a while, Sonali started staying in the academy premises and started training rigorously.
Sonali and Sumanth after winning India’s Got Talent thereafter participated in many national and international dance competitions.
They were also part of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa on Colors TV and finished at third place and they were also in top 10 of Dance Champions on Star Plus in 2017.
Internationally, the duo has participated in ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions and currently in 15th installment of NBC’s America’s Got Talent.
All eyes are on this duo to make India proud once again on an international stage after V Unbeatable made us proud after winning the last edition of America’s Got Talent.
America’s Got Talent Season 15 finale will air soon in the country exclusively on Voot Select & Colors Infinity
Here’s how Bad Salsa danced 8 years back, which btw was not bad at all.