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Dancin’ in the rain

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Malaika Arora Khan is a huge drawcard at IFFM’s Telstra Bollywood Dance Competition

Photo: Ravinder Singh Jabbal

There was no sunshine or blue skies, but it was the perfect day for dancing in the rain at the Telstra Bollywood Dance competition; for many reasons. The participants had come from different parts of the country, there was substantial prize money to be won including a free trip to India and the dancers had been gearing up for this event for weeks.

It helped of course to have Bollywood’s original yummy mummy Malaika Arora Khan to turn up the heat.

Malaika is currently a judge on the 2014 season of India’s Got Talent. The svelte Indian actress, dancer and model who is famous for her sizzling dance numbers Munni and Chaiyya Chaiyya was in Melbourne as one of the judges of the Telstra Bollywood Dance Competition. The event was held at the iconic Federation Square as part of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2014. Writer-director Vijay Krishna Acharya of Dhoom 3 fame and Avtar Panesar from Yash Raj Films accompanied Malaika on the judging panel. The spectators could also take part in the event by voting for their favourite contestants via their phones.

It was one Bollywood dazzler after the other as teams and individuals showcased some amazing talent. Any discomfort from the inclement weather was soon forgotten amidst the riot of colours, foot-tapping music and some sensational performances. The jury was out along with the umbrellas and it was a tough call to decide the winner.

The judges were looking for expression, form, technique and creativity and they found it all in the performances of the Shiamak Dawar Dance group and The Sapphires. The two groups went on to share the best dancing group title. Sanjana Jaiswal won the Pre Teens solo for her innovative fusion of Indian classical dance performed on Bollywood pop songs. The beautiful Elise Watson-Ford deservedly took the adult solo prize for her creative combination of Indian music and western ballet. Elise won a trip to India courtesy of Gaura Travels. The rest of the winners received cash prizes from Telstra’s General Manager Alister Park.

During the course of the evening the crowd swelled to thousands despite the cold and wet weather. Their persistence was rewarded when towards the end Malaika bust a few moves of her own on stage. Clad in a simple pink short shift dress, a faux fur coat, opaque stockings and some killer black heels, Malaika Arora Khan was quite clearly the crowd’s favourite.

 

More from IFFM here:

A Tete-A-Tete with Amitabh Bachchan

Couldn’t get enough of Big B

And now, an Amitabh scholarship!

And the award goes too

Check out the photos of Big B at IFFM on our Facebook page here

Preeti Jabbal
Preeti Jabbal
Preeti is the Melbourne Coordinator of Indian Link.

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