Interview: Gayatri Patel
Two iconic giants are entangled in a chess match — the ultimate dance between Bollywood and Hollywood. Along the way, a few Indian superstars found their way to the backlots of Burbank and Los Angeles’s ever-so-famous entertainment district. In exchange, the highest grossing film returned the favor in sending a few dignitaries of its own to the world’s largest democracy.
In the dance that is the merging of the world’s two biggest entertainment industries, Hollywood and Bollywood are slowly melding together into one united unit, with the free flowing of talent soon becoming the norm.
While big-time Indian-born talents such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Irrfan Khan and Freida Pinto have made names for themselves in Hollywood, a few of Hollywood’s elite, such as Sylvester Stallone and Steven Spielberg, have returned the favor and ventured into South Asian cinema.
Now, the person to break barriers and open new doors for Indian-Americans in Bollywood is Gayatri Patel, an American-born actress with South Asian roots deciding to realize her ambition and head back to the motherland.
The up-and-coming actress known as the “Dancing Tornado” is slated to make her debut in the Indian production of Let’s Dance, scheduled to be released in theaters on June 19th. In the film, Patel will be playing a simple yet determined teacher who, on her path to fame, changes course to motivate a group of underprivileged children.
Dubbed a “petite dancing tornado,” Patel relied upon her dance expertise to electrify the film and bring the film’s music to life. The young actress is trained in the classical Indian dance of Kathak and has mastered the art of Yoga. According to her publicist, the “lethal combination” allows Patel to “attempt the most daring dance steps, breath-taking whirls and swirls with some awesome splits.”
For Patel, landing a role in Let’s Dance is a wonderful opportunity for her to define her acting career, attributing her determination for success as an actress to her early stage training as a child.
“I could have very well been a doctor like my father, rather than an actress, had I not started performing on stage at the age of eight,” Patel said of her career aspirations and acting ambitions.
Those aspirations and ambitions actually took form at the ripe age of seven, when she went to a local Indian dance competition in Dothan, Alabama and set her sights on winning the event’s top prize –- a large trophy. Lo and behold, Patel stuck true to her dreams and claimed top honor for that year…and the year after that…and the year after that…and the year after that…until she could no longer win it anymore.
Apparently discovering her passion for performing in front of others, Patel soon found herself participating in a beauty pageant during her college years at Atlanta’s Emory University. There, she won Miss India Georgia and later nabbed the first-runner-up position at Miss India USA.
“Around this time, I realized I loved theatre, dance and acting more than studying science,” she candidly said. “I’ve done jazz, hip-hop, filmy, Kathak and Natwari dancing in the film.”
So out the door went the medical studies, and in entered a promising acting career.
With her epiphany and newfound passion, Patel and her family decided she shift base to Mumbai to pursue her acting career. Once there, she spent time taking tips from some of the biggest names in theatre, such as Satyadev Dubey and Makrand Deshpande. She even participated in an acting workshop with Veena
Setting the foundation to launch her acting career, Patel was finally “discovered” by National Award-winning editor Aarif Sheikh, who decided to introduce her on the big screen as the lead in his directorial debut, Let’s Dance. Where she goes from there is up to her, though the door she has been long waiting to crack has swung wide open. As she prepares to walk through, hopefully movie-goers will welcome her with open arms.
Produced by Dr. Arvind Patel, the film co-stars Ajay Chaudhary, Aqib Afzaal, Sugandha Garg, Asif Basra, Abhaas Yadav, Nikuunj Padaya, Paras Arora and Anjan Srivastav.
