Dancing and directing

Acclaimed dancer, choreographer and singer Shiamak Davar is now all set to make his debut as a director. The theme of his film is, not surprisingly, dancing! Davar himself will act in A Slumdog Millionaire Goes Dancing, which revolves around slum kids being trained to participate in a dance competition that will change their lives. On July 10, 2010 Mumbai Mirror (MM) mentioned that the process of selecting 10 slum children (five boys and five girls) between the ages of five and 18 will begin soon. These potential performers will be handpicked by Davar and handed over to 10 superstar mentors for training, MM notes.

Shiamak Davar (wearing dark glasses) with his troupe: "understated icon”

The film, which is expected to take off by December this year, will be produced by Percept Picture Company (PPC), which has backed several experimental films in the past. Joint managing director of PPC, Shailendra Singh, told Hindustan Times (HT) on July 10 that "one name that consistently cropped up when we talk Bollywood dancing is Shiamak Davar. He’s an understated icon with over 8,000 students in Bombay alone, and has choreographed stage acts and film songs for almost every top-ranking film star, from Madhuri (Dixit), Sridevi, Karisma (Kapoor) and Shilpa (Shetty) to Hrithik (Roshan), Aishwariya (Rai Bachchan), Rani Mukherjee and Shahid (Kapoor).” Singh told HT that he hopes to have some of these top stars to play mentors to the slum children. "It will be just two days’ work for these celebs but their presence will make our Slumdog film as big as Danny Boyle’s Oscar winner,” he said hopefully.

The Afternoon Despatch and Courier (ADC) of July 16, 2010 quoted Davar as saying: "I am going to play Shiamak and I am going to discover talented children as my role will be of a talent hunter... I wanted to get dancing talent out from the streets and slums. So I thought of doing this film.” The script, which is in its initial stage, will revolve around an underdog who becomes an achiever with the help of his mentor and it will have cameos by Bollywood stars, ADC adds. Shahid Kapoor, one of Davar’s most celebrated former students will be making a special appearance in this debut movie, Daily News and Analysis (DNA) reveals in its edition of July 15.