‘Spare our culture, Bollywood’: Social media trolls Ananya Panday's Bharatnatyam performance in Chand Mera Dil

Ananya Panday's Bharatnatyam dance sequence in Chand Mera Dil has faced criticism on social media for allegedly being ‘robotic’, disrespectful to the art form.

Chand Mera Dil, starring Lakshya and Ananya Panday, opened in theatres last Friday to a lukewarm response. What's creating headlines though is not the film itself- but her dance. Bharatnatyam, to be precise.

Ananya Panday

Social media is busy trolling her for her performance. In two key sequences in the romance drama, Ananya's character Chandni is shown doing a robotic-Bharatnatyam fusion: one, when she is a college student, where Lakshya's character sees her for the first time. And the second time, during her college's Alumni meet. Unconvinced by her efforts, people were quick to dissect it. Check out some of the angry reactions:

The comments have not been encouraging too. One read, “Should have had AI do those steps Would have been better Why are we still being given such substandard” Another comment said, “She is literally making fun” One of the comments criticised a traditional dance form being executed like this “Such a disgrace. Her performance is an insult to the beautiful dance form,let these bollywood kiddos stick to hops and other western dance forms”