The hugely popular music group One Direction has gone Bollywood, at least for 1 day. On November 23rd, the UK band that features Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson held a special live streaming event titled 1D Day. According to the web site, “1D Day is an exciting opportunity for everyone everywhere to take part in a unique global event, providing an exclusive insight into the lives of One Direction – and the people around them. 1D Day will consist of a seven hour stream, filmed live from a television studio and comprising a whole host of special features, celebrity guests and content created by you.” One of those special features was a Bollywood dance sequence: Nakul Dev Mahajan’s dance troupe NDM Bollywood Dance Productions Inc was asked to be a part of the special day and teach the boys some Bollymoves and perform with them during one of the segments.
NDM’s Khushy explained, “We got an email from the producers saying that they wanted to book us for 1D Day event. They were familiar with Nakul’s [choreographic] work on So You Think You Can Dance.”
It goes without saying that everyone was very excited when they learned about the event, especially the younger girls, because it is One Direction, after all! “We were all every excited. We knew that our teenage girls would go absolutely nuts.”
So what was the plan for the Bollywood number with the One Direction boys? “The Producers wanted freestyle Bollywood Dancing from our the NDM Troupe Dancers and requested that the movement was simple enough for the One Direction boys to follow, as learning a choreographed number prior to the shoot was not feasible for this project. The Producers changed their mind last minute and wanted a short easy looped choreographed piece, which we delivered.”
We also got the scoop of what happened at the 1D Day shoot. “The shoot consisted of a lot of waiting, as always. It was a live stream and they were running a little behind schedule. When it was finally our turn, we went into the studio that had different sets in every corner. They picked a spot of us and we stood right behind Zayn and Louis and did some Bollywood moves, while they tried to follow along. The shoot itself lasted about 5 minutes.”
Louis and Zayn both have said they had a lot of fun, so how did they do? “They tried to follow along, which was the original plan, but started to do their own moves about half way through. The boys are natural entertainers; they didn’t really follow along with our moves. Nonetheless, they had fun and I’m sure the crowd loved it.”
About the overall experience being a part of 1D Day and naaching with One Direction, she had this to say, “When we initially got the email, we weren’t really sure what to expect. However, we were really excited when we found out that we would be actually dancing side by side to the One Direction boys. Our first initial thought was, “our kids are going to go crazy when they find out.” The overall experience was a lot of fun and we had a blast working with Zayn and Louis. And yes, we were correct, as soon as we posted the videos and pictures, our students did indeed go crazy!”
Khushy also responded to the idea that there seems to be a trend to have Bollywood in pop numbers, not only for One Direction but also performers like Selena Gomez. “Yes, right now, Bollywood is definitely THE trendy thing to have in any number. “
It was very cool to have Bollywood being represented on this platform. “Being able to say that Bollywood has become very mainstream these days makes us all very proud. NDM Bollywood Dance Productions and Studios Inc. is always very grateful that these opportunities knock on our door and allow us to be the ones to make the name of Bollywood bigger and bigger.”
Check out the pictures and the video!
