The Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, and the dance number performed during its credits, helped spark a broader interest in Bollywood films, the genre of movies created by the Mumbai film industry. In 2017, Heena Patel, who was born in Toronto, and Rushi Vakil, born and raised in India, teamed up to further people’s curiosity for the genre on the stage in Bollywood Boulevard, which celebrates the history of Bollywood through dances, music and film. The show will look to deepen peoples’ understanding of Hindi cinema and enthrall at the same time when it stops at Wolf Trap on Aug. 26.
How were you introduced to Bollywood?
Patel: My experience is pretty typical of many South Asian Canadians, South Asian Americans who were children of immigrants that were here in the ‘80s. Whether in the car or at home, my parents would be playing Bollywood music. Bollywood was around me in all shapes and forms, be it cinema, music or dance, since I was a little girl.
Vakil: My father is a very famous classical musician (Indian classical). I was always intrigued toward the versatility of sounds that Bollywood could present. … I would find it very different from the classical music I would be hearing or practicing every day at home. I could see that there is a huge range of sounds and musical genres that are used in Bollywood, and that really pushed me to understand it and follow it more passionately.
Can you elaborate on a previous quote where you called Bollywood “the soundtrack of the world?”
Patel: That was a misquote. What I was saying was Bollywood was the soundtrack of my world. For a lot of South Asians, our soundtrack to our lives comes from the cinema.
Vakil: I think it can be considered the soundtrack of the world itself. Like a billion and a half people hear this genre of music every day, first of all; that is a huge percentage of the global population. And then, the Bollywood cinema is expanding a lot. You get to hear flamingo music, you get to hear jazz, you get to hear blues, you get to hear blue grass. So it doesn’t belong to any particular genre of music now, it’s kind of inclusive of many various traditional or contemporary music styles from around the world.
Patel: It’s a similar case in dance. … It’s not really a single style. It is a myriad of so many different styles of music and dance.
What is your goal for the show?
Vakil: I really wish this to go as big as possible and to as many different places as possible. Probably to places where there are no South Asians, where there are no Indians, where there is no one who has ever seen any Hindi movie. I would want to go to those places and make them understand what this industry is all about.
Patel: It’s meant to be a fun, high-energy cultural bridge. Our goal was always for people to walk away having a great time and … if we’ve inspired them to go home and watch some more movies or listen to the songs, or read up on some of the composers or films we reference, we think that’s success.
