They dance into our hearts

Manpriya Singh

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ere in Chandigarh, yet again, both Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor chart their own journey and share their own equation with the city. While Shraddha’s hardly given it a skip, having checked in for the promotions of Half Girlfriend, Saaho and now the upcoming Street Dancer 3D, Varun’s connect with Chandigarh goes back to the days when his face didn’t have instant recall value, when he stayed put in for a couple of months, courtesy the shoot of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania.

“Not many people recognised me back then and I used to roam around at Elante Mall and eat at Nando’s. Do you still have Nando’s ?” he kick-starts things, after both of the actors have greeted Zirakpur with a warm Satsriakal.

Fitted in between this promotional tour is the launch of PVR at Cosmo Mall, followed by a visit to a private university, pretty much like their interaction, which is a mash-up of selfies, Q and A round and requests.

Which is precisely what they do, Varun shakes a leg, Shraddha sings a song and both of them can be seen dancing to a song we’ve heard and almost gotten over now, Jasmine Sandlas’ Nakhra Tikhi Talwar Varga.

Talking of the film, Varun’s character Sehaj Singh is inspired by an actual dancer from Chandigarh named Sehaj, who belongs to a crew. He narrates the dialogue from the film, “My biji says, you may or may not say waheguru, but even that moment counts as a prayer when you help the needy.”

He adds, “This film is about culture, for some reason some people who couldn’t stay connected to their culture.” At this point he draws a parallel, of being a Punjabi, growing up in Mumbai. “My own biji speaks theth Punjabi and but I grew up in Mumbai, so we don’t get to hear it. Let alone Punjabi, we don’t get to hear proper Hindi in Mumbai.”

Talking of the dancers in the film, there is a little correction he’d like to make. “It would be wrong to call them just dancers, they are performing artistes and household names. From ABCD to the time, they’ve reached Street Dancer 3D, we are all actors as well,” he points to the accompanying Raghav Juyal and says, “Look at him, so many girls are crushing on him.” The infamous and obsessive Indo-Pak battle lends itself to several questions, a few political ones. “Well, be it cricket rivalry and be it dance battle, it’s something we all enjoy. Now, if Kohli hits a sixer on a Pakistani bowler’s ball, then we’ll have to do bhangra na.” The day the film releases, “My good friend Sonam Bajwa’s film is releasing too.”

It’s time to sign off, for the cast and crew to catch up on the one hour they are already running late by their schedule. Varun says, “Whenever I land at Chandigarh airport, it’s been lucky for me. Whatever I’ve asked for, I’ve gotten.” Let’s see if the city plays lucky this time.