How emotional is Jaya Smriti for you? After all it is the dance festival in the memory of your dynamic mother.
It is an intensely emotional moment for me, for my mother was a great promoter of art and artistes. I thought of instituting a dance festival in her fond memory with the intent of providing a platform for young talent in the field of Indian classical dance. This year we have three young dancers, all upto the age of 22, from three different dance forms. They are Arunima Kumar (Kuchipudi), Sanjukta Sinha (Kathak ) and Revanta Sarabhai (Bharatanatyam).
How do you shortlist participants for the annual festival?
With God’s grace, Jaya Smriti is becoming known among dancers and they send us the VCDs of their dance recitals. At times if I like a certain dance performance I see, I ask the dancer to get in touch with us. It is a one-day festival but from the overwhelming response we have received, We wish to extend it to three days where many more artistes will get the opportunity to perform from morning to evening.
Your performance along with your daughters - Esha and Ahana - was the highlight of the inaugural show of Jaya Smriti. Why haven’t you repeated that show again?
No, no! I can’t keep on making my children dance all the time. Arre baba, we are not promoting ourselves at this event, we are providing a platform for budding talent.
How about instituting dancing awards?
Recently, Lataji suggested that to me at the awards function that she hosts in the memory of her Late father Pt Dinanath Mangeshkar. She feels that we must acknowledge and applaud elderly achievers who have made significant contribution to classical dance. But I am still not convinced, I feel hum award dene layak bane hain kya?
What is happening to your proposed Dancing Academy?
I want premises to house my Natyavihar Kalakendra, where I can teach dance and hold dance festivals in our own auditorium. Otherwise booking a theatre turns out to be pretty expensive and that limits us in several ways.
But the Government of Maharashtra is still “thinking and considering” the proposal!
What would be the Dream girl’s dream plan for the academy?
I am very keen on teaching students the technique of ballet which incorporates various classical dance forms. We have produced a dozen ballets so far and we are thinking about launching Ganga, the story of the holy river Ganga.
Your mother Jaya Chakravarthy gifted you the heritage of Bharatanatyam. What are you passing on to your daughters?
My mother not only gifted me dance but also the values,the strength and the fighting instinct to get things done. I was really naive and my mother needed to guide me. But my daughters are 100% more smarter than me, they don’t need my advice. Both of them are very mature and understanding. In fact, they are the ones who are telling me what to do and what not to do. Especially Esha, she is almost like a smaller version of my mother.
What’s happening to the Esha film you were supposed to direct?
It is in the scripting stages and it’s early days to talk about it.
Finally, have you seen Life In A...Metro, which brought Dharamji back to the silver screen? What is your reaction to his comeback - especially with Apne?
I enjoyed Dharamji’s performance in ...Metro. I have always encouraged him to get back because he has millions of fans. Why should he remain in oblivion? But he must not take up any chhota-mota roles, he has to go for author-backed roles like Apne.
It is high time you both were seen together! You made the hottest pair then.
(Laughs) Of course we want to appear together in a film again, but we are yet to find an appropriate script.