How to start a career in acting

Have you ever stood in front of a mirror enacting a scene from your favorite movie?

Have you ever visualized yourself making the acceptance speech with an Oscar in your hand? I’m sure many of us have done that. But like a popular star of Bollywood quips, it’s not just talent, its’ also a matter of chance and that not all the talented ones get such chance. Hence, it becomes very crucial for the enthusiasts to avail themselves of the opportunities that come their way. In such situations, online talent communities are blessings in disguise for the talented people worldwide.

Here are three simple steps to make a career in acting:

RUB: Record – Upload – Build network

Record:

Do not waste your talent. Select a movie scene (or just any drama or theatrical) that gives you scope to show your acting skills.

Memorize the lines and understand the nuances of enacting the scene, such as costume, make-up, voice modulation, etc.

Seek the help of a friend in recording the scene OR use a camera with the stand and adjust the focus, lighting, volume, etc. beforehand.

Ensure you have good quality recording else your talent would go unnoticed.

Rehearse the dialogues and go for a test run. If you are satisfied with the result, go for the final shot.

Upload:

This is the most crucial step in the process. Select talent sites that have specific category dedicated to acting or your video will be buried under thousands of irrelevant videos on the site.

Make sure the site is not the regular video sharing site but an exclusive talent portal.

Build network:

A famous business tycoon once said, selling a product without advertising is like winking at a beautiful lady in the dark. She will never know you winked! You are trying to sell your talent so advertise.

Tell your friends, relatives, neighbors, classmates and everyone you know to watch your talent and keep circulate it within their network. You never know. All roads may lead to Rome but your network could lead you to stardom!

Good luck.

Bollywood's Best Choreographers

Bollywood's best choreographers

A Bollywood movie can barely run without dance sequences in it. Except for some classic movies like Black, Bollywood flicks cannot do without dance numbers. Let's take a look at some of the best choreographers of the industry.

Shiamak Davar:

Nobody thought that this back bencher would be such a big man today. Shiamak believes that dance has immense healing powers. He runs a very large number of dance schools across the country and has people of all ages attending his classes. He also runs a not for profit dance institute and trains underprivileged and handicapped children. A very amicable person, Shiamak has choreographed dance numbers in movies like Taal, Kisna, Bunty aur Bubli, Dil to Pagal Hai, Dhoom 2 and Taare Zameen Par. All of these movies are known more for their brilliant dance sequences than anything else.

Farah Khan:

Farah Khan, sister of famous TV comedian Sajid Khan has seen immense success in her career as a choreographer. She has hit movies like Kaho na pyar hai, Dil chahta hai, Kaal, Kabhi khushi kabhi gum, Monsoon wedding, Krrish, Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge and Main hoon na to her credit. Farah turned director when she directed the movies Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om. Now a mother of triplets, Farah has decided to take a break to look after her babies. Let's see what this talented lady bounces back with!


Saroj Khan:

Saroj Khan shot to fame when she choreographed actresses like Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit. With more than 200 films and many awards to her credit, Saroj has shown her remarkable talent in songs like Beta, Chandni, Bazigar, Darr, Khamoshi, Pardes, Soldier, Devdas, Sathiya, Veer Zara, and more recently, Fanaa and Guru. Age doesn't stop this super strong woman; she may be a grandma now, but she is going to continue dancing till she can move!

Raju Khan:

Son of acclaimed choreographer Saorj Khan, Raju Khan has choreographed more than 1500 songs. The most popular of them of course are numbers from the super hit movie Lagaan, and Krrish.


Vaibhavi Merchant:

She is the grand daughter of pioneer choreographer Sri HariLal Merchant. Vaibhavi won the National Film Award for Best Choreography for the song Dhol Baje from the movie Hum Dil de chuke sanam. She has choreographed very successful numbers from movies like Dhoom, Swades, Dil Maange more, Bunti aur Babli, No entry, Rang de basanti, Dhoom 2, Aja nach le, Jhoom barabar jhoom and Love story 2050.

Remo:

Remo has choreographed songs in movies like Aankhein, Aksar, Shabd, Waqt, Just married, Pyar ke side effects, 36 China town, Fight Club, Dhoom and Jo Bole so nihal.


Ahmed Khan:

Rangeela, Rakshak, Pardes,Taal, Gulam, Bus itna sa khas hai, Mere yaar ki shaadi hai, Salaam Namaste Jab we met and a whole lot more; Ahmed Khan is truly a rare gem to Bollywood. Of all his work, Rangeels won himmaximum credit and he took off at full speed after that.

Malika Slaps Rather Than Giving Kisses

Mallika Sherawat has been shooting for her upcoming movie, Ugly Aur Pagly and that's certainly something she enjoyed! In the movie she slaps actor Ranvir Shorey 99 times to finally reward him with one kiss. Considering not every slap has been succesfully filmed after the first take, Mallika has been slapping around quite a lot! Don't make it a habit Mallika!

Bollywood Dance World Record on Trafalgar Square

A lot of Bollywood Dancing in London at the Big Blast Dance Festival. Almost 300 hundred Bollywood fans broke the world record for "Biggest Bollywood Dance", when they danced all together to the tunes of the popular movie item song 'Om Shanti Om'.

For the advanced Bollywood dancers it might have been a bit of an easy routine dance, but in order to get people from all ages and backgrounds shaking to Indian tunes, one has to keep it simple.

Some reactions from the public:

Kalpana Halai, from Stanmore.
"It was an amazing experience and really good to be taking part in a world record attempt."

Trystan Ferriday, from Clapham
"They taught us some dance moves in the warm-up before we did the record. It was really good fun."

Bruno Tonioli
"It shows people the wide range of dancing that's available, how easy it is and how accessible it is.

We especially agree with the last one and are glad to see so much attention for our beloved Bollywood Dance!

(read more in the london paper)

Ode to Bollywood Diva's

Bollywood’s charming and charismatic ladies know their way around everything too well. Their life is full of pomp, show, pamper, fashion, glitz, glam, paparazzi, endorsements and of course massive pay cheques!

None of them had it easy though. Try looking at some pictures of the best Bollywood actresses, when they all started out and those of what they are now! Bollywood is nothing without style, glitz and fashion. These ladies in Tinsel town are trend setters, especially in the world of fashion.

let’s take a look at some of divas, as they hold the men of the world in rapt attention.

Former Miss World, and current Mrs. Bachhan, Aishwarya Rai is undoubtedly one of the woman beautiful women the world has ever seen. She swept away the title with ease and grace, but her acting skills took a whole lot of time to blossom. With her initial movies bombing at the box office, the public was quite convinced this beauty doesn’t have what it takes. They’ve all been bombarded now, as Aishwarya has grown to become the face that people relate India with! Way to go Ash, but it would be wonderful if you could also learn to be punctual !

When Kajol stepped into Bollywood, she certainly didn’t have the looks or the height to be there! But this talented diva didn’t care and decided to let her talent do all the talking. She steals the show with sheer talent and presentation skills. And now, Kajol looks stunning! The magic of fashion and make up! She had the skill, they gave her the looks.

Rani Mukherjee, Kajol’s cousin had a disatrous entry too, when her debut movie ‘Raja Ki Ayegi Baraat’ bombed at the box office. But this short, sweet diva is now one of the most sought after actresses and is acclaimed for her fantastic acting skills and versatility.

Kareena Kapoor stepped in, following the footsteps of her sister Karishma, as a plump, haughty girl. She definitely has improved a lot since she started, both with her acting as well as her presentation, although she continues to remain her stuck up, puffed up self. She seems to have been able to increase her fan population multifold, since her movie ‘Tashan’, Looks like a movie doesn’t have to do very well for a star to make an astonishing comeback with!

Bollywood also happens to be the place for Miss India(s) to earn their bread. They already are high profile faces that everyone recognises, and that just makes it so much simpler for them to reside in Tinsel town! The list is endless…..

Shikha Swaroop, Namrata Shirodkar, Pooja Batra, Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Diana Hayden, Nafisa Joseph, Yukta Mookhey, Gul Panag, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, Diya Mirza, Celina Jaitley, Neha Dhupia, Tanushree Dutta, not to forget, the gorgeous Nutan, Leela Naidu, Zeenat Aman, Nafisa Ali, Sangeeta Bijlani, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Juhi Chawla and a lot more to come!

Bollywood perhaps would not be the same, if it weren’t for the beauties of the 70s. Asha Parekh, Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Mumtaz; they stole a heart too many! Current actresses should draw inspiration from these divas who were naturals at their work!

A special mention has to be made of the most popular Bollywood Diva- Helen. Very few of us know that this amazingly talented Diva is of Anglo- Burmese origin. Her full name is Helen Richardson Khan. With her outstanding dancing skill and her cabaret performances in Bollywood, Helen is a goddess! She puts the current actresses to shame. Helen had a tough financial crunch in the initial years of her life, but shot to fame and all star treatment with her impeccable flair. Hats off to this Diva!