by Subhash K Jha

For a few minutes there was a stunned silence on the set of Ek Main Aur Ek Tu. "The guest Upen Patel reminded us so much of Paresh Patel, our finalist who had to unfortunately bow out. It looked like Paresh had returned when Upen Patel came as a star judge.

They's both from London's business families. They speak similarly and even have similar features," said Sa Re Ga Ma Pa's Gajendra Singh.

Although he isn't quite the pro when it comes to Hindi, Upen Patel created a never-before frenzy on Ek Main Aur Ek Tu when he appeared for the music show this week.

Female members of the audience shrieked hysterically as soon as Patel showed up.

Says Upen Patel, "I had an awesome time. All these boys and girls sang so well. And in many ways I could connect with them. They're all from outside Mumbai in the city of dreams, pursuing their ambitions. I'm also doing the same. I could hear my own dreams in their voices."

Adds Gajendra Singh, "We've never seen anything like this before on our shows. It was mass hysteria," says Sa Re Ga Ma's Gajendra Singh after the recording of the show on Monday evening.

"There were shouts of 'Chinatown'. It took us a while to calm the girls down. It isn't that Upen couldn't speak Hindi. But since he's more comfortable in English he chose to express his appreciation for the participants in English."

Incidentally this week onwards there's a new value-addition on Ek Main Aur Ek Tu. Judge Hariharan will sing along with whichever couple he thinks has performed the best. This week it's Ujjaini and Aishwaraya who get the privielege of singing with Hariharan.