Local dancer and beauty pageant winner, Chanel Hurlin, was recently onset for an upcoming Bollywood film being shot here in Cape Town. We caught up with the blonde, blue-eyed dancer and got the low-down on what it was like shooting in freezing temperatures on the beach!
YM: We hear you’re rehearsing for a Bollywood film. How exciting, what film is it for?
CH: Yip, it’s a Bollywood film called COCKTAIL. It’s the first Bollywood film that I’ve been a part of so it’s all very exciting! The main actor is Saif Ali Khan (Prince of India) and actress Deepika Padukone who was apparently once Miss World.
YM: You’re a dancer right? What is your role in the film?
CH: Yes, I am a dancer. I do tap, modern and contemporary…and can now add Indian dancing to the list. The dancers are only in one scene of the movie which is at a beach party. The supporting actress arrives at the beach party where the DJ is randomly playing a Bollywood tune. She gets very excited and starts doing an Indian dance. I, together with the other dancers, start to copy her moves and do the whole dance with her. Very simple, but a lot of fun.
YM: Rehearsals must be tough – take us through a day’s rehearsal.
CH: We only had two rehearsals – ±7hours in total. Rehearsal 1: we learnt all the choreography and started to get into the Bollywood style. Rehearsal 2: we perfected the moves (polished our dance as we would say) and did placing.
YM: Bollywood films always have such incredible sets and costumes; tell us a bit about what you’ll be wearing.
CH: The movie is set in Cape Town so unfortunately for us our costumes weren’t the spectacular Bollywood style but just normal beach wear for the beach party.
YM: How long will you be shooting?
CH: 3 days from 7am-7pm,12 hour shoot.
YM: What’s it like dancing for a highly stylised film?
CH: It was an amazing experience and just a whole lot of fun! The song we danced to was upbeat and I pretty much feel like I’ve been partying for the past 3 days! I always like to challenge myself with dance forms and this was a great opportunity to do something different and out of my comfort-zone.
YM: Any juicy snippets you can tell us from behind the scenes?
CH: THE WEATHER! Oh my word, it was so windy. In the film its going to look like a beautiful hot summers day and that we’re all loving life but in reality, between every take we rushed for our long pants and jackets to keep warm. The worst part was then getting splashed with water! Ah, what we do for film.’..
-Jade
