But Tenaaz, speaking on behalf of the couple, is unfazed. "It's okay. Sometimes you've 'up' days sometimes 'down'. It's all part of the game. When you're right up there, the judges don't expect a bad performance from you.
They become doubly offended when they expect so much for you. Each time they expect to see something better from us. That's why they were disappointed by our performance. Sarojji has every right to be vocal. She's possessive about me and Bakhtiyar...."
The dance that got the aggressive Ms Khan annoyed was for the regional round. Says Tenaaz, "We had introduced sixteen beats of Gujarati, Maharashtrian, Punjabi each...
Then we concluded with a typical South Indian dance. It was a little too much for the judges. They would tell us if we did wrong more strongly than they'd tell others."
Where does the couple's out-flowing adrenaline on stage come from? Tenaaz laughs, "I guess it comes from Bakhtiyar. He's really energetic. And I've to keep up with him. Also, I love dancing, though I've never had formal training. Lekin ek mauka mila hai. And we're making the best of it.
We've to respect our judges on Nach Baliye. We can't belittle them by giving a shoddy performance. When we're rehearsing we make sure we give our best shot, do something that's worthy of us and the judges. And we can never be lazy on stage."
Tenaaz and Bakhtiyar devote about 8-10 hours per day for dance rehearsals. "I've sacrificed a lot to give my best Nach Baliye. Fortunately my 14-year old daughter is a big support. She watches all our performances and is disappointed when we get low marks....
I felt damn sad when the judges didn't like our latest performance. I wish we had time to interact with the judges. But where's the time? We aren't even partying these days. We never thought we'd come this far."
Tenaaz isn't doing anything else except Nach Baliye. "Not even any serials. I gave up the sitcom Wah Wah because I didn't find it interesting enough. I hope to get better offers now."
Tenaaz and Bakhtiyar will get married early next year. "We've waited so long to get married. First my dad passed away in August. And now we've made no preparations because my mom isn't keeping well. We don't know how her health will go. Both Bakhtiyar and my family are looking forward to our marriage."