After editing a flurry of critically acclaimed films like Makdee, Maqbool and Parzania, National Award-winning editor Aarif Sheikh, has now gone behind the camera for his directorial debut Let's Dance - a dance extravaganza that centres around street children.
"Although dancing is the DNA of the film, I was very sure that my story needed to be solid. It needed to hold on its own," Sheikh said in a press statement.
Produced by Arvind Patel, Let's Dance stars debutante Gayatri Patel and other lesser known actors like Ajay Chaudhary, Aqib Afzaal, Sugandha Garg, Asif Basra, Abhaas Yadav, and Nikuunj Padaya. But Sheikh, who won the National Award for Sushmita Sen-starrer Samay - When Time Strikes in 2004, says he was unfazed about working with new artists.
"Although I was working with mostly new artists, I never had any trouble extracting performances as all my actors were perceptive," he said.
Sheikh is particularly happy with his lead heroine Gayatri, who was born and brought up in the US. In Let's Dance, she plays a simple but determined dance teacher, who decides to motivate a group of underprivileged kids.
"Gayatri is simply fabulous in dance and that's why we call her 'the dancing tornado'. I couldn't have had a better dancer than her for a film like this," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"Gayatri is simply fabulous in dance and that's why we call her 'the dancing tornado'. I couldn't have had a better dancer than her for a film like this," he said.
{{/usCountry}}The debutant director is now looking forward to his film's release June 19.
"I will never forget Let's Dance... It's embedded in my soul. Every shot, every scene, every creative decision of mine," Sheikh said.