Khatron Ke Khiladi 4, subtitled “Torchaar 4,” returned to South Africa in mid-2011, introducing a partner-based format that paired each celebrity with a professional stunt performer — and closing with a genuinely dramatic wildcard-comeback story. Here’s the complete breakdown.
Start Date and Season Overview
Khatron Ke Khiladi 4 premiered June 3, 2011, on Colors TV, and concluded July 23, 2011, running 16 episodes with 13 celebrity contestants. Akshay Kumar hosted for his third and final season with the franchise, filmed once again in South Africa. This season introduced a new partner format, pairing each celebrity contestant with a professional stunt performer for the show’s challenges.
Who Won Khatron Ke Khiladi 4?
Actress and model Aarti Chhabria, paired with stunt partner Dhaval Thakur, was declared the winner. Her path to the title was genuinely unusual — she and Thakur had actually been eliminated earlier in the season before re-entering through a wildcard opportunity, which Chhabria later called their “lucky charm” on the way to winning. The finale itself was one of the show’s more dangerous stunts to that point, with contestants battling a bus set on fire and suspended in the air over a body of water. Host Akshay Kumar specifically noted Thakur’s lock-picking skill during the final task, to which Thakur cheekily credited inspiration from the film Tees Maar Khan.
Runner-Up and Top Finishers
Singer, dancer, and host Mauli Dave, paired with partner Dhiraj Amonkar, finished as first runner-up. Model, fashion designer, and actress Diandra Soares, paired with Arhan Choudhry, placed as second runner-up, with actress Dina Singh and partner Pramod Dahiya rounding out the top four.
Full Contestant List
Season 4’s 13-person celebrity lineup, each paired with a professional stunt partner, included actresses, models, a cricketer, and reality TV personalities:
- Aarti Chhabria (with Dhaval Thakur) — Actress, model — Winner
- Mauli Dave (with Dhiraj Amonkar) — Singer, dancer, host, actress — First runner-up
- Diandra Soares (with Arhan Choudhry) — Model, fashion designer, actress — Second runner-up
- Dina Singh (with Pramod Dahiya) — Actress
- Mia Uyeda (with Sangram Singh) — Actress, model, VJ, columnist
- Anjum Chopra (with Sandeep Sachdev) — Cricketer
- Aashka Goradia (with Sunit Bhatia) — Actress, model
- Alesia Raut (with Shashwat Seth) — Actress, model
- Bani J (with Amit Mehra) — Model, VJ, television host
- Kashmera Shah (with Sumit Suri) — Actress
- Poonam Pandey (with Praveen Jain) — Actress, model
- Smita Bansal (with Saurabbh Roy) — Actress
- Sambhavna Seth (with Khalid Chowdhary) — Actress, dancer
Final Thoughts
Khatron Ke Khiladi 4’s wildcard-comeback storyline for Aarti Chhabria and Dhaval Thakur remains one of the more memorable finishes in the franchise’s early history, and the season’s fiery, suspended-bus finale stunt set a genuine benchmark for danger that later seasons would continue to build on. As Akshay Kumar’s final season hosting the show, it also closed out an era before Rohit Shetty took over from Season 5 onward and became the face most synonymous with the format.