When I was four years old, little white Midwestern me was obsessed with elephants – books, statues, everything. I wanted to ride them and be near them and watch them.
When I was in fifth grade and choosing my instrument for the school band, I wanted to play the oboe because it reminded me of hypnotic snake charmer music. (Nobody else wanted to play oboe, so I chickened out and went with the flute. Total mistake.)
When Panjabi MC teamed up with Jay-Z for “Beware of the Boys” – and before we were blessed with Shazam – I went crazy trying to find the song info so I could find more music like it. This is what I’ve been looking for!
I took two Indian classes in college, and continually pestered my friends to sit with me and watch Bollywood movies with – GOD FORBID – subtitles.
I wanted to join the campus Indian student group, but was dissuaded by my then-boyfriend because I wasn’t Indian myself. I found one Indian guy to discuss movies with, but that became an extremely weird mess really fast.
My family and friends didn’t understand where my affinity for India came from, nor did I, but I embraced it nonetheless.
I’ve always been relatively shy, so it wasn’t until after college – when I was watching Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl by myself – that I finally got the guts to connect with people with similar interests. I googled “Bollywood Twin Cities” and found a dance group called Bollywood Dance Scene – Twin Cities. That week’s dance was “Thug Le”, so I decided it was fate and dragged a friend along.
I went to several classes with different friends, but due to my job with odd hours I had to stop attending. This was the spring of 2013.
Vikram was born and raised in Punjab, India. He moved to the city of Pune for work after college, and lived there for several years until his U.S. visa was approved for onsite work at his client company.
Typically when you are approved to work onsite in the U.S., you have a month to get your affairs in order before leaving the country. Vikram was given one week. He frantically packed, sold unneeded items, and made his way with a few friends to the airport without the chance for a farewell from his family.
After stops in Paris and New York City, Vikram landed in Minneapolis in the fall of 2013.
In the spring of 2014, a full year after I stopped attending Bollywood dance classes, I got a message from a friend that I had once brought to class with me and who still attended it. She told me that the group had gotten selected to perform in the Minnesota Fringe Festival, which consists of hundreds of amateur playwrights, actors, dancers, and groups performing five shows each over the course of two weeks in Minneapolis. My friend asked me to come try out for a dancing role, and I reluctantly accepted.
Auditions were a wild combination of South Indian street style, contemporary, and Bollywood. I felt like a wild mess myself, but I somehow managed to snag a dancing role. But if that wasn’t enough, my friend then asked me to try out for an acting role. There was a role named after her that she was obviously a shoo-in for, but I figured she wanted support so I agreed.
Acting auditions provided me with my first experience really sitting down and talking to people – both Indian and non – that were captivated by Indian culture either by birth or by some type of innate energy, like me. It was truly a great feeling.
I was called to read my part, which was for a girl named Brittany – a flirty, fun-loving girl on her first trip to India, who becomes the love interest of a goofy Indian named Bunty. I read with one of the playwrights, who was an amazing actor himself, and left feeling mildly hopeful.
I remember I was sitting in my car when I got the email with the news that I got the part, and I instantly broke into a celebratory car dance (to Bollywood music, of course). The next thing I wondered was…who will be my Bunty?
After the color throwing at Holi
Vikram used to dance in India – a lot. At home, in clubs, at work. Dancing is in a Punjabi’s blood, and it couldn’t be more true with him. The traditional dance of Punjab is bhangra, and if you ever have a chance to see Vikram dancing, he’s the best bhangra dancer you’ll find. (I didn’t know this at the time, but I came to find out very quickly.)
When he came to the U.S., Vikram hung out with an Indian crowd, but wasn’t taking any dance classes and didn’t know about our dance group. In the spring of 2014, he and his friends attended a Holi event (the festival with color-throwing) that was put on by Bollywood Dance Scene. The group lead saw him dancing and knew she wanted him for the play. She approached him, got his contact info, and had him attend classes and auditions.
I showed up for the first practice curious to meet “Bunty” for the first time. I was one of the first ones there, and I watched as person after person arrived and introduced themselves…but none were Bunty. I was about to ask our lead if she knew where he was, but she was already having an agitated conversation about it with her husband.
“Where is Vikram? I told him today was the first practice. He should be here. I’m going to call him.
Vikram? Hey, where are you? Practice is starting today! Yes I did tell you! It’s starting right now, can you come? Seriously? Fine, I’ll see you at the next practice. Don’t forget.”
And that’s how I spent my first play rehearsal learning a partner dance to “Tenu Leke” by myself.
I spent my second and third rehearsals partner-less because Vikram was on a vacation, and the fourth was spent alone because he had a work project.
But on the fifth rehearsal, I finally got to meet Bunty. We were sitting in a circle in the studio when he walked in. We told him we were going around and introducing ourselves, and I remember he responded with this very weird and over-the-top introduction, and we all kind of stared at him because we didn’t know how to respond. Then he said, “Aren’t we supposed to introduce ourselves in character? No? Oh okay.” and we all laughed. That’s Vikram 🙂
Then what?? Stay tuned for Part 2 of Our Bollywood Love Story!
Big Curly Hair 