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COLUMBIAN EXPAT IS 'ZEE' ITEM GIRL!

The finals of 'Musafir Star Search', which was held in Dubai on Friday, September 17, will be telecast on October 1, executives at Zee satellite network announced. Friday's show brought to a close a six-week search to find the girl who could possibly become Bollywood's next new star.

In a closely contested final, nine girls, six of whom were non-Indians, battled it out over two rounds.

The first round was a solo performance dance to the song 'Ishq Khudai'. The second round permitted the contestants to choose their own song. Bosco Ceasar, choreographers for the movie Musafir trained and choreographed the contestants for both rounds.

The evening featured scintillating performances by Rakhee Sawant who performed on various tracks including the T-Series super hit Pardesiya and the renowned sufi singer Kailash Kher who belted out his hit tracks Allah ke Bande and Rangdeeni in his haunting voice.

Speaking on the quality of performances, Yogesh Radhakrishnan, Director Special Projects, Zee TV said, "There is no dearth of talent in Dubai and the finalists have clearly shown this. It was an extremely well fought final which made the decision of the judges that much more difficult. Hence it was decided to select three, not two girls as had been previously planned."

Liris Mosquera P of Colombia was the unanimous choice of both, the judges and audience for her outstanding dance performance. Mary Nilasha De Fonseka, from Sri Lanka, and Tatsiana Bokhan, from Belarus, were declared the first and second runners-up respectively.

The judging panel included Indian actors Anil Kapoor, Shakti Kapoor, Sameera Reddy, Koena Mitra, Director of Musafir, Sanjay Gupta, Rajat Kumar, Managing Director — Qasim Recording Company (T-Series), Arun Nagar, Managing Director - Cellucom and Abdul Latif Al Sayegh, Managing Director, Arabian Radio Network.

The criteria for selection were appearance, attitude, dancing ability, sense of rhythm, style (body language), physical fitness and confidence.

Liris, Mary and Tatsiana will represent the UAE in the grand finals of the competition to be held in Mumbai on 29th September 2004. The winner will perform with Sanjay Dutt in the movie Musafir.

All the three winners will have the opportunity to star in forthcoming music videos by Qasim Recording Company (T-Series).