Who was the first person in your life who asked you ‘So you think you can dance’?
(Laughs) It was my Guruji. When I was three years old, I used to stand behind my sisters and imitate them when they danced. One day my Guruji observed that and asked, ‘You think you can dance’? I said, ‘Yes’. To which he said, ‘Are you ready to dance if I’ll teach you?' and then he turned to my mother and said, ‘yeh vaise bhi inke peeche dance karti hai, toh ise bhi bhejo meri class mein, main ise bhi dance seekha dunga.’ (she anyways imitates her sisters dancing, why not send her too to my classes. I shall teach her to dance.) That’s how I learnt dancing.
What is the first vision of dance you remember?
I’d seen Pandit Birju Maharaj performing in Rang Bhavan when we were really young. He kept dancing till 5am in the morning and we just watched him dance. That was the first impression for me. That time I was into classical dancing.
You been a judge on a dance show earlier too... how different is So You Think You Can dance going to be?
Well, the thing is the styles are different… there is street dancing v/s stage dance. So you will see a lot of stage performances, you will see a lot of street dancing and of course I’m in between because I have done stage performances as I’m trained Katahak dance and I have also done Bollywood dancing, which is kind of street because we do all kind of styles. In Bollywood at some point we have done a lot of things that are now street dancing without knowing it like tutting, popping and locking. So this time my judging is going to be more encouraging for them.
You’d taken a break from Bollywood as well as from the small screen... what did you do in that period?
Well, I was spending time with my children, I was looking at different opportunities and I was taking my time. Then I concentrated on working on Dance with Madhuri. I was busy with that because when I saw these dancers who were learning from the web, I was validated that what I was doing is right. Because you can learn from the internet and what I’m doing is something which is very today, we are teaching people different dance styles; we are giving them the skill set so that they can do something with their lives. They learn different styles, they can teach others and they can become teachers.
Any new dance form you learned recently?
Well, I did a little bit of Pasodoble for my performance and a little bit of Samba.
When you are going to sign your next film?
(Laughs) I’m waiting for the right script. I want it to be entertaining and I want to have a lovely experience working on it. So I want that kind of a script and once I find something like that, I’ll do it.
You saw Fan recently. Did you like it?
I loved it! I thought Shah Rukh Khan was excellent as both Gaurav and Aaryan Khan. The characterization of Gaurav was unbelievable and the way he acted was fabulous. The superstar’s role was challenging as he had so much depth. They all have their fragilities, vulnerabilities, negatives and positives and that was brought out very well with both the characters. I thought it was very good film.