Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre and filmmaker Anurag Basu will be judging Zee TV's acting talent hunt show - India's Best Dramebaaz.

Aptly titled 'India's Best Dramebaaz', the talent hunt show will put children in the age range of 5-12 years through a series of tasks and challenges that will groom them as actors and test their creativity, spontaneity and acting capabilities.

The judges are in Kolkata on Tuesday to interact with the short-listed contestants from the auditions of the show that took place on Saturday at Swabhumi.

The contestants from Kolkata hand-picked by them will make it to the final auditions of the show in Mumbai.

India's Best Dramebaaz is hosted by Rithvik Dhanjani who shot to popularity playing Arjun in Zee TV's primetime soap Pavitra Rishta.

About taking on the judge's mantle, Sonali said, `This is a win-win situation for me ... I just love kids. Being around them makes me happy ... and now I have a job that pays me to do what I love the most. I'm glad that India's Best Dramebaaz presents an atmosphere that puts children at ease,allows them to come into their own and be themselves.

"The kind of talent we have seen so far is overwhelming ... they're such cute kids and they talk so much ... they're innocence is adorable and will tug at everyone's heartstrings!`

Anurag said, `I'm extremely glad Zee TV has offered me this exciting job ... it's a pleasure to be surrounded by such young talent. The idea is to identify children who have a natural spunk, something original about their style and can perform with ease without getting conscious.`

The channel has begun its countrywide search for the 18 brightest, spunkiest, the most mischievous and talented kids from across the country.


Apart from Kolkata, Zee TV's talent scouts are also conducting auditions in Mumbai, Delhi, Nagpur, Patna, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Pune, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Lucknow, Dehradun, Raipur and Allahabad.

Sonali and Anurag announced the launch of India's Best Dramebaaz at the recently held Zee Cine Awards 2013.