Jaaved Jaaferi reveals what led to change in perception about dance being an elite artform on ‘India’s Best Dancer’
Mumbai, July 9 (IANS) Actor Jaaved Jaaferi, who graced the latest episode of the dance reality show ‘India’s Best Dancer’ season 5, has shared how his dance reality show in the 1990s changed the perception of dance only belonging to the elite circles.
The episode of ‘India’s Best Dancer’ season 5 bridged the past and the present of dance entertainment, as he looked back at the early 1990s along with Ravi Behl and Naved Jaaferi when the concept of a dance reality show was entirely unheard of.
Talking about how their show came into existence, Ravi Behl shared, “Ek din Naved ne kaha, ghar pe aaya, bola ki I have an idea and uss waqt kisi ne sunaa hi nahi tha yeh concept. Aur immediately, since we are all dancers I said that’s a fantastic idea, toh bas, doh page pe concept likha khud hi (One day, Naved came home and said, ‘I have an idea’, and at that time, no one had ever heard of this concept. And immediately, since we are all dancers, I said that’s a fantastic idea, so we just wrote the concept on two pages)”.
Their show ‘Boogie Woogie’ led to the evolution of dance reality show with the medium gaining further momentum in the subsequent decades.
Jaaved Jaaferi said, “Us waqt dance jo the, jo khaas taur pe voh Western dance hota tha, woh upper class ke log kiya karte the aisa mana jaata tha. Toh jab auditions hue the, famous Mahalakshmi Studio mein maine dekha ki bacche the Nala Sopara, Ghatkopar, Borivali East, yahan sab ke bacche the. Toh yeh joh power aur josh tha na, yahi woh Nala Sopara, Ghatkopar aur Borivali walo baccho’n mein tha (At that time, dance, especially Western dance, was considered something that only the upper class did. So when the auditions happened, at the famous Mahalakshmi Studio, I saw that the kids from Nala Sopara, Ghatkopar, Borivali East, all the kids were from here. So this power and enthusiasm was the same in the children from Nala Sopara, Ghatkopar, and Borivali)”.
“Humare, hum sabki wahi uss waqt philosophy thi. Hum star nahi hain, woh star hain. Woh picture hain aur hum frame hain. Hum kuch nahi kar rahe hain, hum sirf ek manch de rahe hain (We all had the same philosophy at that time, we are not the stars, they are the stars. They are the picture and we are the frame. We are not doing anything, we are just providing a platform)”, he added.
‘India’s Best Dancer’ season 5 airs on Sony Entertainment Television.
–IANS
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