Saroj Khan and Madhuri Dixit during one of their many collaborations

Choreographer Terence Lewis is contemplating a biopic on the late dance director; now has scripted another journey for the screen
Akash Bhatnagar (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 28, 2020)

Sony TV’s talent hunt show, India’s Best Dancer, has got back into action after a forced break. Choreographer Terence Lewis was the first to agree to resume work in the midst of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, even convincing fellow judges, choreographer Geeta Kapur and actress Malaika Arora, to join him. “I have to admit that we have all become more efficient in the present scenario; we’re working in the Akshay Kumar-style,” he chuckles.

In a recent episode, which paid a tribute to Bollywood legends, Terence followed the tradition of the late dance director Saroj Khan, rewarding Rs 101 to contestant Rutuja Junnarkar and retraced his association with the dance legend. “In 2007, I did a show called Dance Dance which had Saroj ji, Vaibhavi Merchant and me as the judges and Geeta as a backstage choreographer. It wasn’t appreciated much, but we forged a connection and I went on to appear on her show, Nachle Ve,” he informs.

One day, after she was done with her work, Saroj ji saw Terence dancing and stopped to observe. She didn’t know much about contemporary dance styles and was impressed. After the act, she showered him with compliments. They went on to speak about her journey and how she became the woman everyone was intimidated by. “She was motherly to me, but I was still terrified because Saroj Khan was an institution in herself,” he admits. Unknown to her, Terence had also watched Sarojji during Lagaan and was amazed by the dignity and grace she brought to charttoppers like “Dhak Dhak Karne Laga” and “Choli Ke Peechhe Kya Hai”. “She could even make actors like Sunny Deol, Ajay Devgn and Anil Kapoor dance and it’s thanks to her that choreographers came to be noticed in the film industry and their work appreciated by the audience,” he applauds.

Terence recalls that when he told Saroj ji that he didn’t want to do films and had found his calling in TV, she quipped tongue-in-cheek, “Tu bach gaya.” For him, she was the Broadway legend, Bob Fosse, of Bollywood. “I wished to make a film on her journey, but she was not excited. She told me it would be too scandalous,” he recounts, revealing that at 14, pregnant with her son, Raju, Saroj ji was made to teach Vyjayanthimala some dance steps for a film song. “The same day, she delivered. She lost her daughter and went through so much, but it’s a tribute to her grit that a child artiste Nirmala Devi went on to become Saroj Khan, an alpha figure in a male-dominated industry, thanks to whom award shows began to honour choreographers. I hope someone makes the film someday.”

On his part, Terence has written another script in the last three years. It is the journey of a fictional choreographer and he hopes to make it in the next two years.