Choreographer Shiamak Davar spoke exclusively to MiD DAY about all the song and dance in the inauguration of CWG 2010

'No celebs at opening ceremony a good thing'

Choreographer Shiamak Davar spoke exclusively to MiD DAY about all the song and dance in the inauguration of CWG 2010

He makes the biggest Bollywood stars dance according to his whims and fancies. Yet choreographer Shiamak Davar was pleased with the fact that there were no real celebrities among the performers at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games on Sunday.

Right moves: Shiamak Davar with his troupe at the Opening ceremony
u00a0on Sunday. Pic/SubhASh Barolia

Davar's troupe performed to the beautiful theme song 'Swagatham' in a gala event. Over a thousand students from his group were performing at the event. Speaking exclusively to MiD DAY, Davar said that handling the opening ceremony for CWG 2010 was very different compared to choreographing the closing ceremony at Melbourne four years ago.

Davar feels that all those who performed at Melbourne were professionals but it was students undergoing training who participated in Sunday's event. "The persons who were invited during the closing ceremony at Melbourne by the Sports Authority of India to present India's culture were Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukherjee, Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra and Saif Ali Khan. All of them are professionals and Aishwaraya has been my student. So handling and choreographing them was quite easy."

"But here there were no big celebrities involved which I consider was the most beautiful part. Initially it was a bit of a problem but things improved very fast. Here we had to present ourselves with different genres such folk dancers, musicians and also training students from all over India. So this was a big challenge for us," Davar added.

Speaking about the theme of the event, Davar said: "We tried to keep things very Indian. Nothing was my creation. We were requested by the Organising Committee to present the entire thing this way."

However when asked about the time given by the Organising Committee to prepare everything he refused to comment and said: "There is never enough time for any event to prepare yourself. You have to be smart enough to make do with whatever time you have got. However, we have been getting very good feedback.

People have been coming out from the stadium in extremely happy mood. I am really glad seeing the people's reaction."

Bollywood Connection

Shiamak Davar began his choreography for Indian cinema with the film 'Dil To Pagal Hai', for which he won the President's National Award. Having changed the way dance was perceived in Indian films, Shiamak went on to choreograph for several Bollywood films such as Taal, Kisna, Bunty Aur Babli, Dhoom 2, I See You, Taare Zameen Par, Yuvvraaj and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. His latest work is for the Indian film 'Aladdin - The Mystery of the Lamp' starring Amitabh Bachchan.
He has acted and choreographed in a movie called Little Ziziou.

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