Saroj Khan’s Journey In Bollywood
In its Endeavour to provide high-quality 21st-century education, Rishihood aims to continuously create and recreate its curriculum under the guidance and support of the experts from diverse fields. The inputs and insights from seasoned professionals direct the team to make specifically tailored courses and programs.
Big Shots, Rishihood’s flagship event, is a series of conversations with inspiring doers, creators, entrepreneurs, and big shots to learn from their wisdom, life journeys, and ideas. It is a manifestation of the University’s idea of associating with the best to deliver the best.
The recent event of Big Shots witnessed an enriching conversation with the choreography maestro, Ms. Saroj Khan. Hosted at the Indian International Center, Max Mueller Marg, Mrs. Saumya Aggarwal, a Board Member of Rishihood Varsity and the moderator for the evening welcomed the chief guest and the audience. Mr. Mahesh Agarwal, radiologist, and a Board Member thanked Ms. Khan and congratulated the team for the association with her.
Saroj Khan shared about her humble beginning in Bollywood 61 years ago when industry and especially dancing was male-centric. With the responsibility of running the family, she started as a child artist in the movie Nazrana and became an assistant dance choreographer at the tender age of 12. She retraces her journey with ‘Geeta Mera Naam’ when director Sadhana offered her the first break. She gratefully recalls Subhash Ghai who was impressed by her commitment to work offered her work in the movie Hero.
She fondly retells about the making of the super hit number ‘ek do teen..’ with Madhuri Dixit which remains very close to her heart and vivid in her memories. Her relentless dedicated work pushed the Filmfare awards to include Choreography as a separate category for nominations. She not only bagged the first one but completed a hat-trick.
She asserts that the time she joined was a golden period for the industry because everyone worked for the love of art and not the business. She also expresses her hopes of Indian style of dancing to remain on the screens for a long run as she puts ‘our art never dies’. She proudly tells how the next gen actresses have expressed interest to learn Indian dance form from her in the recent times. Choreography, she believes, manifests craving for creation. She keeps her creative process simple where she visualizes the situation of the song in the narrative, considers the dancing ability of the artists and then follows her heart to create the magic.
She has formally entered into a partnership with the School of Creativity, Rishihood to guide the team for School of Creativity. The Varsity seeks to reach exemplary heights in creativity and service society with this partnership. She appreciated Rishihood for initiating the much-needed effort of bringing the novel course of formalizing dance education in India. She also expressed the concern that the path would not be easy enough as a visual performing art like dance is difficult to be taught through traditional means but with concerted efforts of the team, it would be great service for the art and the artists.
The event was witnessed by eminent Entrepreneurs, Journalists, Industry experts, and academicians.
