Soparrkar fake shocks fraternity

Choreographers react to royal con on World Dance Dayu00a0

Yesterday, just one day prior to the royal wedding MiD DAY exposed a royal con doing the rounds of the city. Choreographer-dancer Sandip Soparrkar who had been claiming that he and his wife Jesse were going to perform at the William-Kate royal wedding in London today, had his cover blown.


Terence Lewis

Untrue
The St James Palace spokesman from London called the Soparrkar story "not true" and Clarence House press office from London, called Soparrkar's claims, "a hoax". The royal press spokespersons said categorically that Soparrkar had never been asked to or invited to perform at the reception or the wedding.

Fake
Today, ironically is World Dance Day, a day when Mumbai's dance teachers and choreographers are talking about Sandip Soparrkar's deceitful and now laughable quick one he tried to pull on the media. A journalist in London, looking at Soparrkar's fake invite replete with grammatical errors had commented, "it has obviously been written by somebody whose dancing is better than his grasp of English."


This is a lesson for those who lie Shiamak Davar

Signature
Soparrkar had even sent an email of the invite to this newspaper saying it was sent by one James Kidner (it even had a signature) Assistant Private Secretary to HRH the Prince of Wales. Kidner's office in London when sent the invite called it "strange" and denied ever inviting Soparrkar to perform at the reception.

Halt
Choreographers and dancers have screeched to a halt in their dancing shoes when asked for a reaction to Soparrkar's fake invite. The common reaction was "shocked" with dance teacher, Monica Raheja who also does choreography for weddings said she is shocked to read that Sandip Soparrkar had made a false claim about being invited to the royal wedding to perform a Bollywood Waltz Dance. Said Monica, "Soparrkar has a very good name in the fraternity and to hear that he has done this, if true, is really very shameful."


Remo D'Souza

Names
Having said that, Monica knows that in a world where name dropping and sensationalism sells, big names may make false claims to buttress their so-called popularity or try to pull a fast one on people through the media. Said Monica, "Several well-known choreographers make claims that they have been invited by this or that reality show to be on the jury but had to turn it down because of paucity of time. They also claim via the media that this or that college invited them to judge their college competitions. Several times this is untrue because they charge huge money to be on the jury, which surely several colleges can ill afford to pay. In several ways, people try all these shortcuts to two minutes of fame."

Perform
Monica also added that she had in fact received an SMS message on her phone, "a couple of days earlier, saying that Sandip Soparrkar, his wife Jessie were going to perform a dance, even Manish Malhotra's name was dragged into the SMS, and one had to buy passes to view their performanceu00a0-- dances which they would perform at the royal wedding. I deleted the message because I did not plan to go anyway," ended Raheja.u00a0



Divine
Remo D'Souza invoked the divine, "Oh my God! I am shocked beyond words and if the news is true it is also embarrassing. I don't see any reason for Sandip Soparrkar to do it, as he is not a struggler, who needs cheap publicity. It is very sad but I don't think he represents the entire fraternity so it won't affect us. But it would definitely have an impact on how Indians are perceived abroad and it will be the talk of the town for a while now."

For Terence Lewis, who knows Soparrkar andu00a0 Randhawa personally, skepticism is the way to go. "I wouldn't like to believe that they could do such a thing. No one is foolish enough to play a con when such a big wedding is involved which is under tremendous media scrutiny. I am sure this is a matter of miscommunication or someone has played a prank on Sandip himself. As I have worked with them and they are sound people, I can say they wouldn't do something like this. He himself has been conned and he went ahead with the invite without cross checking on it. Last minute, he must have realised the forgery and must have panicked. I feel sorry for them and hope that the truth surfaces soon. It is a tragic thing to happen, that too on international dance day."



Sad
Pony Verma, is more circumspect and she said, "I wouldn't want to comment on it until I hear the story from him. I know Sandip Soparrkar as a good colleague and we are appreciative of each other's work. He is a very classy and dignified person. I have never seen him running after the media to hog the limelight or give sensational quotes. There has been some confusion or some communication gap. But if it is true then it is really sad and disappointing."

The big daddy of choreography, Shiamak Davar, who was practising for his dance show on the occasion of World Dance Day preached celestial truths. He said, "My God, you are shocking me. It's really shocking and upsetting to hear this. This is a lesson for people who think they can lie and get away but they don't realise that the truth will catch up with them, no matter where they go.

Be it anyone, I am sure that God does justice and one has to repent for the bad, here itself. Dance, as a profession, when I started was a joke to people. It has taken me 26 years to reach were I am and make dance a respectable profession, so it's really very depressing. I just hope it isn't true and even if it is true. I hope it doesn't tarnish the image of choreographers."u00a0u00a0u00a0

Check
For choreographer Longinus Fernandes the expose has been, "an eye opener. I really got upset after I heard the news. At least I have something to learn from it. Next time, if I'm being invited for any big dance show, I will cross check with the party concerned before announcing it to the whole world."u00a0 Fernandes, who was initially very happy when he learnt that Soparrkar and his wife would be performing, now feels that such incidents can severely affect the reputation of the dance industry. "People will remember this incident which will definitely generate some kind of suspicion. They might just see us in a different light altogether," he said.

But, dismissing this as a one-off case, director and choreographer, Farah Khan said, "This is just an isolated incident and doesn't reflect poorly on the dance fraternity. Why should the whole industry be held responsible for a particular incident? It would have been nice if he had told everybody after his performance was over and not before that.

He should have been more careful." Khan claimed that, she is extra cautious when she is invited for big events, "When I get any such invitation, I am extra careful. Before signing the contract or reconfirming with the party concerned, I don't reveal anything to the media." When asked if this incident will have a negative impact on his career, Khan said, "I think he will just be fine." When asked if she thought it was a publicity stunt, Khan said, "Only he would be able to clarify it."

Boasting
Ganesh Hegde believes it could not be a publicity stunt and something must have seriously gone wrong with the invitation. At the same time, Hegde feels that it's one's work that should do most of the talking. "Hard work is what will take you far. Showing pamphlets, invitation cards or boasting about your work won't take you far." Hegde added that aspiring dancers should in fact learn a lesson from this episode. "If you are hard working and talented then you will stand out."

Choreographer Bosco Martis (of Bosco Caesar fame) said that Soparrkar should have finished his performance and then spoken about it. "After that you have an experience that you can share with everybody. Before a performance, there is no point talking about it as anything can go wrong." As far as Soparrkar's work is concerned, Martis claimed, "I have not seen much of his work. I don't know which super hit songs he has choreographed."u00a0

Lounge look
Naman Jain, co-owner of the South Mumbai lounge Panache, where Kangana Ranaut was supposed to have inaugurated the royal invite on April 26 (Tuesday evening) and which was cancelled because Soparrkar claimed he had hurt his leg, first denied that an accident had happened at the Lounge. After a few seconds of silence he revealed, "Sandip was here on Monday evening to rehearse for his event scheduled for the next day. As it was late in the evening I wasn't present at the venue. After Sandip finished with his rehearsals, he met me for 15 minutes and sounded very positive and excited about the event. Till then he didn't mention anything about the injury to me. It was only after an hour that I was informed about his injury and the cancellation of the event."

(Inputs from Urmimala Banerjee )