By IANS,
Mumbai : A half a kilometre-long procession – with dancers grooving to pulsating music – is set to enthrall Mumbaikars Sunday as a grand dance carnival has been organised by Zee TV as a prelude to the finale of its reality show “Dance India Dance”.
The carnival, en route from the Worli Sea Face to the Worli Sports Ground here, will have a melange of dancers grooving to hip-hop, dandiya and salsa beats apart from Punjabi dhols, Sunday starting 7 p.m.
So is the Goan carnival coming to Mumbai?
“God willing, it’s going to be bigger,” said Akash Chawla, head of Marketing, Zee TV.
“The response to ‘Dance India Dance’ across all platforms has been exceptional. And we wanted to engage the audience, because of whom the show has become so successful,” Chawla told IANS.
“So we decided to organise this dance carnival on the roads with lots of ‘Dance India Dance’ participants, its judges, various dance troupes and the audience to come together on one platform and celebrate dance,” he added.
“Dance India Dance” is in its second season, and has choreographers like Terrence Lewis, Remo D’Souza and Geeta Kapoor training and guiding the participants. Bollywood’s original disco king Mithun Chakraborty is the grandmaster of the show.
The channel has planned this marketing initiative on a grand scale in the run up to the show’s finale, slated for April 23.
“We will have eight to nine floats (decorated open vehicle), different dancers from a lot of troupes – we will have classical dancers and other western performers, some contestants from our upcoming ‘Dance India Dance L’il Masters’, and once the audience joins it, it will be a huge procession,” he said.
People can get their body tattooed or walk with the stilt-walkers, apart from dancing with their favourite contestants.
The procession will culminate in an event at the Worli Sports Ground, where the four finalists – Dharmesh, Shakti, Binny and Punit – will perform for the audience.
Tight security has been arranged for the event, for which over 5,000 people are expected, according to Chawla.
“If the Mumbai Police would not have supported us on this, it wouldn’t have been possible. A huge private security force has been deputed to line up the street over and above what the Mumbai Police will do to keep any problems away,” he added.
Post the finale, the channel is set to launch its first junior version of “Dance India Dance” April 30. Choreographer-turned-director Farah Khan and professional salsa dancer Sandip Soparkar are expected to judge the show.
So will the ‘Dance India Dance’ carnival remind you of the Goan or Rio de Janeiro carnivals? Wait till Sunday for the answer.