She already knew Bharatnatyam. Shilpa Shetty has now learnt the basics of Odissi from guru Ratikant Mohapatra, son of the late guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra, for a Chindian (Indian-Chinese) film to be released in three languages — Hindi, Chinese and English.
Shilpa will present a four-minute dance performance in Desire, being co-produced by Sharad Hegde of Mumbai and Tracy Shiun from China. Kerala’s R Sarath is directing the movie, being shot at Kollam in Kerala.
About Shilpa’s role in the movie, Guru Ratikant said the movie follows the lives of Goutami (Shilpa), an accomplished Odissi dancer, and artist Jai Leang (Yu), their separation and coming together again by destiny.
“I had gone to Kerala and taught the basics of Odissi to Shilpa for seven days, starting from January 14,” he says. Shilpa praticised for two and half hours in the morning and nearly three hours in the evening.
“My experience with Shilpa was good. Being a Bharatnatyam dancer, she understood the Odissi style and form and its execution. She had no star tantrums and proved herself a committed artiste,” he said.
The movie is scheduled for release in April 2010.
To give an Odissi touch to the film, a devotional song of Lord Jagannath, an integral part of the dance form, will be sung during the dance. “The film has two classical songs, a Sanskrit sloka by eminent scholar Manmohan Acharya and an Oriya song taken from Padyaballi, written by Gopalkrushna Patnaik,” says Mohapatra.
“AR Rahman directed the music in Hindi, I have directed the music for the Oriya song,” says Oriya music director Laxmikant Palit.
The movie also stars Jaya Prada, Vikram Gokhale, Anupam Kher and Chinese superstar Xia Yu. “Jayaprada too learnt Odissi from me for two days,” said Mohapatra.
