The Doon Mozaic, introductory issue, may 2016 1 | Page 8

Feminism is misinterpreted these days
How did you get here ?
It was spontaneous. After my intermediate from
Rishikesh, I graduated from MKP Dehradun in
art and music. We used to perform at our college
events when I found the passage of learning and
practicing my skills from my guru Rani Khanum
who was from Delhi. Being the disciple of Birju
Maharaj for some time, I gained a decent amount

What the ‘guru’ teaches, the ‘shishya’ learns without
question, therefore, I believe that a male dancer should
not learn ‘kathak’ from a female teacher because the
dance taught by a female teacher contains more femininity than neutrality. As far as the underrated part is
considered, there are many male ‘kathak’ dancers who
stand apart from the monopoly that exists in this dance
form.

of expertise in ‘kathak’ and other related dance

You are a female entrepreneur as well, what is your

forms. After working in the industry for a while, I

opinion on feminism of today?

got married and eventually started NIPA as a
dance academy. This was possible due to the immense support and motivation that my family
provided me with, at all times.

True feminism is the total awareness of her powers in
a female. I think that the world has been presented
with the theory of feminism in a wrong way. Being a
woman, I understand my powers as well as my limitations and it isn’t right to suppress another part of com-

You worked in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s
blockbuster film ‘Devdas’ with Bollywood
stars. How was the experience?
I did not know for which film we were auditioning when we reached Mumbai with Maharaj Ji .
Only after we were selected we came to know
that it was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film. It was a
great experience working in the song “Silsila ye
chahat ka”. It was a turning point in my life as a
window to a whole new world opened in front of
me.
Male dancers in ‘kathak’ are not very common and the existing ones are underrated.
What do you think is the reason for that?
That is true. Male ‘kathak’ dancers are rare. One
of the main reasons for this is the lack of interest
in males in this form of dance.

The doon mozaic

munity in order to break those limitations. Feminism is
being misinterpreted these days.