by Subhash K Jha

Sidharth Basu's new game show Heartbeat which began telecast on Star One from May 1 every day from Monday to Thursday, is in the news for its starry lineup of celebrity guests from the world of cricket, television and movies.

Cricketers include Ajay Jadeja, Vinod Kamble and Salil Ankola...unless you want to include the last-mentioned among the tv celebrities.

Speaking of television's children Varun Bandola who made a rather dishonourable exit from Star One's channel-turning Nach Baliye wows the audience with his acumen on Heartbeat.

According to Star One sources Varun Bandola who kicks off the Heartbeat series on May 1 is the best player of the lot recorded so far. Other guests who appear on Heartbeat include Supriya Pailgaonkar, Neha Dhupia, Shabbir Ahluwalia.

But clearly the star of the show so far is Priyanka Chopra. She clearly had optimum fun doing the show. "I always enjoy a challenge. And this was one helluva challenge. Here your time to answer questions is monitored by your heartbeat. So even if I got excited or nervous I couldn't let my heart know about it."

Says Deepak Sehgal of Star, "We're hoping Heartbeat would be as popular as Nach Baliye. Heartbeat provides a different kind of thrill. It certainly won't make audiences get up and dance.

We're trying to make the lineup of celebrities as impressive as possible. But all of them seem too busy with other activities. We've Priyanka Chopra in the second week of May. She's excellent."

In the meanwhile Nach Baliye is all set to return. Says Deepak Sehgal, "We're coming back with the second season of Nach Baliye during the Dussehra-Diwali festive season. We still have to decide what kind of couples to bring on. But it won't be just TV couples this time."