Tiger Shroff reminisces about MJ’s steps that inspired him to become a dance icon. By Angela Paljor
The senior Shroff had two left feet. But it is in dancing that the son, is making a mark. “I am running out of moves now,” says actor Tiger Shroff who is all set for the release of his film Munna Michael, which hits the screens on July 21. Known for his flexible moves, Shroff plans to take a break from dancing. “I want to experiment with various other genres. But later on, I will come back to dancing,”
Growing up, acting or for that matter dancing was never a career option for him as Shroff always wanted to a football player. He says, “At that time there was no scope for sports like football. luckily, I started getting films at an early age. So, I decided to apply the discipline of sports into acting and see where it has taken me. Fortunately, my hard work paid off.” And he has no intentions of looking back or regretting the path he took. “I am lucky to be in the position where I am right now. And I am glad that I took the opportunity. Today, I am able to reach out to various people and inspire them.”
Munna Michael is an action, dance film directed by Sabbir Khan. The story revolves a young man from the streets, called Munna (Tiger Shroff), who is a big fan of Michael Jackson from a young age. Mahinder Fauji (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a gangster who aspires to dance and wants Munna to help him. Incidentally, Shroff was inspired to dance because of Michael Jackson and this film provided him with a platform to relive his early life when he copied the singer’s signature steps. “The film gave me a platform to give the iconic character, Michael Jackson a small tribute. But there was a lot of pressure on me as people have a lot of expectations. Everyone knows who MJ is and are familiar with his dance. So, I had to look like him while dancing,” shares Shroff.
The actor spent hours practicing his moves for the film and though he loves to dance he chooses to call the experience challenging rather than fun. “It was really challenging. Especially, the scene where I had pay A tribute to MJ in his style. And I had to do 40 retakes. Its really challenging to maintain the same power and rhythm,” he adds.
Shroff shares screen space with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and he shares, “He is an encyclopedia of the craft, just watching him work was both inspiring and educating. Everytime I was in front of him doing a scene, I would just forget what I was doing and just stare at him. I even forgot my lines many times because he is such a great performer.”
Though he has faced the camera several times, this time around he found the task a daunting one. He shares, “I was really scared on the first day of the shoot. But I realised that Nawazuddin is such an incredible actor that he is making me perform better. His reactions and cues are so spot on so that I started to perform better.”
Just three movies old, Shroff feels that the actors put in a lot of hard work in what they do. “It is only after I became an actor did I realise that the appreciation is well-deserved. Hats off to my father and all the people in the industry who have been entertaining us for years. I had already witnessed the kind of work my father would put in, so I was ready to for the drill. There were no surprises when I joined the industry.”
Shroff is much loved by children and that makes him feel really special. “I am really lucky to have captured the hearts of children. They are my responsibility and I have to keep on entertaining them and surprising them. I would like to reach out to the larger audience and would love to touch as many people as I can throughout my career,” he shares.
While most actors do not want to be typecast, Shroff doesn’t mind it. The actor feels, “I have created an identity for myself within three films. Not many artists can brag about this. I am glad that I have been noticed for my skills. And I don’t want to be the second choice for any film. If people think about making an action film or a dance oriented film, I would like to be among the top choices.”
A converstion with Shroff woulde be incomplete if we forget to mention the senior Shroff. For the young actor, his father is his driving force. He wants to “take his legacy forward, to get my family more respect and to make him feel more proud of me.”
Shroff feels comfortable with the way his career is going. “After Munna Michael I have Baaghi, Student of the year-2 and Raambo. So I am really happy with the lineup,” he shares.
His down-to-earth nature and soft spoken demeanour sits well with his hard work. He is optimistic about how his career is shaping up but he feels he is too young to be in a position to say which director he wants to work with. “I believe that if I am good enough for a role then the director will approach me. But I will never approach a director,” he adds.
Photo: Pankaj Kumar