Achintya Bose: It's High Time We Un-gendered Our Perception of Pretty Much Everything!

'Yeh Ballet' is quite amazing in its understanding of class minus pity! I have often heard Sooni quote Mira Nair's tweet about the film - that it is a Swan lake meets Salaam Bombay - I will choose to go with that thought, adds Achintya...

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Netflix's latest release Yeh Ballet is lyrical. Almost border-line poetic. Inspired by the true journey of two Mumbai boys who overcome their circumstances and rise against the odds to enroll in a prestigious international ballet school, Yeh Ballet is film of our times, at the times of intersections and conversations around new age masculinity or gender. You can either see the film from the lens of class, gender or consider it as a bitter-sweet tale of an underdog. Whatever, your approach may be, this Netflix's film is multi-dimensional in terms of story-telling and no doubt, relevant. It also stars a 20 something talent Achintya Bose, who is anything but a regular twenty year old. For the film, Bose underwent ballet training from Cindy Jourdain who is associated with The Royal School of Ballet, London. We sat down with this rising star to talk about ballet, film, life and more.

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How did you prepare for your role?

Well it was pretty simple actually. I trained rigorously for three hours, learnt variations, certain vocabulary and yet again, practice them rigorously! I did this for six months straight. It was all about the technique at that point of time because I had to match up to Amir, even though I barely got anywhere close to how great he is. I definitely got trained in that particular style which cleaned up my basics and added personality to me. For research, I streamed class-room videos from the Royal Ballet, variations by Daniel Simkin and power moves by Stephen McRae.

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Coming to ballet, How do you balance your technicality with artistry?

 Let me start by trying to address what might be defined as an art? Well, we could say it is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination -  typically in a visual or audio form such as painting, singing, dancing and sculpture -  producing works to be appreciated primarily for their ability to derive the essence of a thought / notion and then present it beautifully with its aesthetics and emotional articulation in place.

So then how can this expression be limited to technicality or artistry only? All forms - will have elements of both - and will emphasize on the need to balance them both. It is in our interpretations that we might skew it either which ways. It is always individual styles that are said to be too technical or too artistic and never the form really. 

So to sum it up - no matter what you do - in any art form -  it will always have a balance between technicality and artistry. 

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Do you think, its high-time, one needs to free ballet from the gender framework? In other words, is the time ripe to un-gender ballet and establish its image as a gender-neutral / free dance form?

Art has no gender. Time and again in the history of not just India, but throughout the world, men and women have proven, that you don't need to be a man or a woman specifically to be able to achieve something in any field - be it the Sciences or Literature or the Visual, Performing & Culinary Arts! So its high time, we un-gendered our perception of pretty much everything!

Ballet - like other dance forms - has been gender neutral for a long long while. In India, we might feel that dance and then Ballet are not part of the 'male friendly' dance forms.  But even historically we know that is not true! 

Odissi was preserved by the Devdasis and Gotipuas alike. We have had iconic artists like Uday Shankar who was a fabulous dancer and played a huge role in the kind of international awareness that is there today for India's various dance forms - classical, folk as well as fusion and modern interpretations using the Indian dances as a base. 

It is an unfortunate irony that a country with such legendary artists and cultural ambassadors continues to bring in matters of gender!

In terms of Ballet in India, I think it would be more prudent to say that the bias is towards it being 'elitist' and 'foreign' and 'not for the middle class and below'! Add to that gender biases as well - it becomes a tough deal indeed! Instead of quoting names from around the world (and there are so many legends who are male, from lower economy backgrounds, brought up within prejudices - who broke free to rise above everything and reach where they did!), I would like to talk about the Indian context. 

My seniors Amir and Manish broke the barriers long back - of class, gender, race and went in to study Ballet in Oregon! 

Prejudices such as these are as ridiculous as the notion that only women should cook! Well ! So many men are such amazing chefs! I myself love to cook (though there is little variety in my list!) Yet, we all go home to mom's food with drool falling down our chins! So clearly cooking is gender-less! 

But then does that mean men will cook outside the house in commercial spaces to earn money and women will continue to feed the biggest of families inside their kitchens? Now that is a totally different thought there ! Maybe then it is less about the cooking or dancing or doing embroidery or whatever and more about the patriarchal mindset - that lets keep the women locked up and home bound! And to ensure that they stay there we build notions of what is considered 'man enough' or 'woman enough'! 

And then along come artists like the Gotipuas or Uday Shankar or Amir or Manish - or our ballet master Yehuda Ma'or - who stuck on to the honing their craft and continue to express themselves through dance. For them, it is artistic expression  - not un-gendering or political correctness. For them, it is a simple insistence of living life on their terms, as per their choices sans discrimination. 


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Do you think the basic story arc of Gully Boy & Yeh Ballet share similarities?

It is natural for a story of the under dog - who rises from the underbelly of a metro to live life on his / her terms, as per his / her choices, to pursue an art form (could be anything!) and then finally make the Big Kill one day -  to have similar trajectories. If they are both based in the same city - e.g. Mumbai - then it seems even more similar! But then we are only looking at it in a very skimmy, surface-level sort of way! 

'Yeh Ballet' I feel has more of 'Salaam Bombay' in it - in the way it explores the young adult mind and subconscious, the nobody's & the fringe dwellers of the society, the way it looks at the underbelly unabashedly - journeying right through the lanes into actual shanties, and in the way it chases lives therein.

 It is quite amazing in its understanding of class minus pity! I have often heard Sooni quote Mira Nair's tweet about the film - that it is a Swan lake meets Salaam Bombay - I will choose to go with that thought! 

After thought - I have often heard people , whose thoughts around cinema I really care about , say that a good film is not about the story you told  because apparently there are only those many stories out there! Its beauty and greatness lies in the way it is told. If both Gully Boy and Yeh Ballet resonate with you despite the presence of the other then maybe that's all that matters! 

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 What has ballet taught you about life and  also, how do you keep yourself fit?

Well ballet has taught me how to be graceful while hard working and how to be fit.

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Can you talk about your future projects?

I am really sorry but I can't really answer this question because there are a few conversations going on. There are offers that have come in as well but most of them are in their initial stages and are closed door conversations. Some involve Non Disclosure Agreements. I will get into serious trouble if I say anything about anything! 

But I would like to say this for sure! When you have a dream debut such as this - with Netflix, Roy Kapur Films and Sooni Taraporevala - and when you have such amazing casting directors, mentors, colleagues & co actors who are all there to ensure you learn and grow and perform your best - you discover a better you and also become better artists and human beings. 

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