By Subhash K. Jha, IANS

Ace filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who got flak for favouring Mahesh Manjrekar on Sony TV's dance show "Jhalak Dikhla Jaa", says he is unperturbed by his fellow-filmmaker's ouster and Shveta Salve's final loss to Mona Singh.

"Why should I take Mahesh's elimination or Shveta's defeat personally? People presumed Mahesh was a favourite because he's a fellow-filmmaker. But it doesn't work that way," Bhansali told IANS.

"Did you see any partiality in the way me and other judges gave marks to Mahesh?" asked Bhansali, who judged the dance show with choreographer-director Farah Khan and actress Shilpa Shetty.

Other well-known personalities who tried their hands at dancing were cricketer Ajay Jadeja, celebrity chef Sanjiv Kapoor, TV actor Akashdeep Sehgal, talk show host Pooja Bedi and actress Rati Agnihotri.

"I'm not great friends with Mahesh in any case. We have mutual respect for our work. I was there to do a job to the best of my abilities. I was not concerned with the profession of the dancers, only their performances.

"And not just me, but Farah and Shilpa also gave more 10-out-of-10s to Mahesh than probably any other contestant. That's because he was absolutely entertaining and never missed a beat," he explained.

But as far as skills go, Bhansali also ranks Mona and Shveta among the best. Mona, who carved a niche for herself as Jassi, walked away with the winning prize.

"Of course, I was sad when Shveta didn't win. I think Shveta has all the qualities of a dancing heroine. The last of the truly great dancing heroines was Madhuri Dixit. But I also love Mona. She's so spontaneous and spunky. I'm very very happy for her."

Bhansali had the time of his life while judging the show.

"I was very sceptical about doing television. A lot of people felt I was too 'intense' to be on the home medium, and that it'd affect my public image. But I didn't care a damn. I don't have a public image. If at all I have one, it should be of someone who laughs, dances and sings a lot. That's how I am in real life.

"I enjoyed 'Jhalak...' immensely. I truly enjoyed the company of my co-judges Farah and Shilpa. I enjoyed Archana Puransingh and Parmeet Sethi's anchoring. Watching the contestants come and go, climb that many steps and then fall... It was quite an experience."

"The only bitter experience on the show was Akashdeep. But we shall not discuss it," said Bhansali.

Farah and Bhansali shared a very special bonding. She insisted on digging into his wallet each time she wanted to reward a contestant.

"We've shared something special from 1992. We've shared some really mad moments. We've struggled and achieved something in our respective fields. And in spite of our huge differences of opinion, we've reached a comfort level where she could dig into my wallet. I wouldn't allow anyone else to do it."

Given a chance, would Bhansali judge a TV contest again?

"No," came the terse reply.