Though according to the judges he was a better performer in the grand final it wasn’t enough for Varun Badola to win Jjhoom India’s title. Varun has lost out to Sachin Tyagi in the battle for votes. Says Varun unflinchingly, “I got a better score in the finals but lost out badly in votes. The deficit was more than one lakh votes.”

Despite the result, Varun isn’t disappointed. “In fact, I knew that I will fall behind him. The final score read 85.5 to 84.5 in my favour. But I fell way behind in votes. That’s been the nature of all reality shows and it’s perfectly legal. These shows are all about picking the popular winner.”

Apparently, Varun wasn’t up to the mark in the first round of the final but this occurred because he wasn’t allowed to pick his choice of song and he had to resort to another track at the last moment. He chides, “I wanted to sing Seene Mein Sulagte Hai Armaan from the film Tarana, however the channel objected to it saying that it’s their policy to sing only popular songs. I couldn’t prepare for the other track.”

When asked how much credit he owes to his mentor Akriti Kakkar, Varun replied, “Akriti was helpful in the initial stage but thereafter she couldn’t give her 100 per cent. She had to bide time for her other shows and I don’t blame her for that. I too didn’t cut down on my acting assignments.”

There was some friction between the two after Varun approached Jjhoom’s resident voice trainer Ananth Vaidhyanathan for help. “I consider this man as a genius and his contribution certainly played a big part in my reaching the finals. However, I don’t want to take anything away from Akriti too. She’s a young singer and I’m sure with experience she’ll become a better mentor.”

When asked to comment on what this show has done for his career Varun says, “This show has done nothing for me. The only positive thing that I take is that after a long time I’ve resumed my singing. Also, I’ve now hired Ananth Vaidyanathan as my teacher. Thus, I’m bound to grow as a singer.”

The grand finale will be aired tonight on Sahara one at 9pm