“Representing India and winning for India is my biggest achievement”, says Shantanu

“Representing India and winning for India is my biggest achievement”, says Shantanu

FPJ BureauUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 02:36 PM IST
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He brought India to the world stage of dance. He walked away from the mainstream careers to chase dancing. Just as his dancing, his acting is also well esteemed in the small screen. Shantanu Maheshwari of MTV’s popular Girls On Top speaks exclusively with The Free Press Journal about dance, daily soaps and more…

Since you have limited yourself towards youth oriented shows, have the mainstream daily soaps ever fascinated you?

I don’t think I’ll be able to do GEC shows. I don’t like doing it because my mental state is not ready to do such kind of shows. I feel that they are too slow and there is a particular pattern that one needs to follow but in youth oriented shows there are a lot of creativity factors in terms of story telling and performance. I feel that it’s better to do youth oriented shows and entertain the youth as long as I am young.

Majority of the Indians are captivated with the western dance forms while only few dedicate themselves to Indian classical dances. What is your take on the people’s change in the attitude towards the Indian dance forms?

I think we are, in any which case, been influenced a lot towards western culture. Nobody likes to do Indian classical dancing. Personally, I wanted to learn Bharatnatyam but I couldn’t because of the time issues and non availability of teachers. If one wants to learn Hip Hop then there are so many teachers and classes for the same but if one wants to learn Bharatnatyam then there are barely any classes for the same. I think people’s taste keeps changing and nowadays western dances are in much demand because people like to do such dances.

Dance reality shows play an important role in giving exposure to the talented but however they lose the limelight after some period of time.

I think that’s the format of the show. Not everyone gets the limelight and not everyone enjoys the same. That’s the pattern and that’s how it works. The one who benefits is the winner so, ultimately one has to win. There are many who despite of winning do not really share the limelight and the one who were the part of the show but have not won, have got the limelight. The best example is Dharmesh Sir. He didn’t win but shares the limelight, people still respect him and the craze for him is still live.

Your best dance buddy.

Nimit Kotian and Macedon Dmello are my close friends and I’ve done shows with them. They are the one who inspired me to dance and will keep continuing the same.

How did your family react to your decision of becoming a dancer than a CA?

My family has never been conservative about things. They appreciated my dance and they thought that I had the potential to dance; hence they wanted me to pursue dancing as my career. They were very positive about whatever I wanted to do and they said that I should give my 100 % in whatever I do than having an half hearted attempt in any thing that I do.

What is your biggest achievement in life?

Representing India and winning for India.

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