All the contestants of Jhalak… have been finalised and as reported earlier, the rehearsals will begin today. Jhalak… will be replacing Indian Idol 4.

But a new development has come up as news comes in that Saroj Khan may not be judging the show.

A reliable source informs, “The list of male participants consists of Vijendra Kumar, Prem Chopra, Karan Singh Grover, Ram Kapoor, Ugesh Sarkar and Anand Raj Anand. And the female contestants are Monica Bedi, Parul Chauhan, Bhagyashri, Shilpa Shukla, Hard Kaur and Gauhar Khan. The first episode will air on February 27. It will air every Friday and Saturday at 9 pm. Monica Bedi had earlier refused to participate but recently she has agreed to do the show.

There is a last minute problem with Saroj Khan as her contract with Boogie Woogie does not permit her to take up any other show. Now Vaibhavi Merchant is tipped to judge the show. Vaibhavi had herself approached Sony to judge Jhalak…She is keen on being a judge in the show. She is almost finalised but she is yet to sign on the dotted line. This will get confirmed in a day or two.”

Talking about this to Tellychakkar Saroj Khan says, “I am very much a part of Jhalak… Small problems like these keep arising but it is not that they can’t be solved.”

Throwing light on the format, our source says, “This season will also see the judges enjoying more power.”

As far as hosts are concerned, the source adds, “Shweta Tiwari and Shiv Pandit have better chances of hosting the new season. The hosts will be finalised tomorrow.” Tellychakkar had earlier reported that the prospective hosts are Mona Singh with Rohit Roy or Sushma Reddy with Shiv Pandit or Shweta Tiwari with Shiv Pandit.

Executive Vice President and Business Head of Sony said, “There is still time for everything to be finalised. I will comment once things get finalised.”

Saul Nassey of BBC production house refused to give his comments.