One step at a time

Isha Sharvani has ventured into movies but dance remains her first love.

If there's one thing Isha Sharvani is pleased to have managed by way of her Bollywood debut, it's attracting attention on her mother Daksha Sheth's contemporary dance company. Not shy of answering the predictable celebrity-related questions, Sharvani is visibly happier talking about the peculiar style of dance that her mother has created and mastered.

"It took her years and years to get to this level and it's not like she wasn't known before, perhaps not on a mass scale, but those who needed to know her did," Sharvani says. However, the lights and cameras of movies and the touch of Subhash Ghai, one of the Hindi movie industry's most famous directors, helped propel Sheth's unconventional style of dance that is best described as a bit of kathak (classical Indian dance), a bit of yoga, a bit of kalaripayatu (martial art from Kerala) and a lot of imagination.

"She dedicated her life to developing this form. She's been in Kerala since 1984, becoming the first woman to learn kalaripayatu. She's danced kathak for 30 years. She's worked with ropes, and just been everything to me," says the young girl, who is clear about who her role model is.

Not willing to reveal her age - "I might regret it later," she says - Sharvani has captivated audiences with her flexibility and ability to contort her body into unimaginable positions. "It's my biggest asset. For sure," she says. After a pause, she recalls how dance was never part of the career plans and just happened.

"I wasn't dancing until 13. I was on a completely different trip. I did go through all that adolescent stuff, except [that] instead of taking it out on my parents I channelled it into activities that were traditionally taboo for an Indian girl," she says. And that's how the training in gymnastics, yoga and kalaripayatu began.

Complicated

Sharvani, who doesn't share the same family name as her mother, adds that none of the family members have the same surname. Sheth didn't change her maiden name after marrying Sharvani's father - who is Australian.

"It gets more complicated because my father has an official name in his passport and another name that everyone knows him by," she says. For the record, Isha Sharvani - translated as Goddess Parvati in Sanskrit - is so named because of her parents' philosophy. "They say that children are not ours to own. They're just brought into the world, but don't belong to parents so they gave their children names that had more meaning than a family name," she says. Sharvani's brother is known as Tao Istro. "It means way to enlightenment," she says.

That doesn't mean Sharvani and her family are not closely bonded. In fact, she can't stop talking about them. All their shows and projects are a complete family effort, with her father and brother composing the music.

One at a time

Sharvani's tryst with movies began a couple of years ago with Kisna. The movie may not have been a commercial success but it did get the graceful, atypical looking young girl noticed. She has three movies releasing this year.

"I could do much more [cinema] but I don't want to give dance the step-daughter treatment so I'm restricting myself to doing just one film at a time," she says.

Once the film-talk starts, Sharvani's vocabulary and rhetoric unfailingly changes to film speak.

"I'm really excited about my future films."

"They're three different genres and explore three different themes."

"My co-stars were really kind and helpful."

So we veer the conversation to what she seems more comfortable with - her dance. Currently travelling as and when required with Sheth's dance troupe, Sharvani says being the teacher's daughter doesn't free her from responsibilities or guarantee a slot in tours.

"Our relationship as mother and daughter ends the moment we're rehearsing. She's tough on me and even when we would rehearse she would never wake me up to make sure I arrived [to rehearse]. It was entirely up to me if I wanted to show up and practise," she says.

Admitting to facing a lot more scrutiny as an actress than when she was just a dancer, Sharvani is, however, not bothered and says she's not interested in the media attention. "I'm basically a shy person off-stage. On-stage I love it. It's my moment of glory and I have a ball. But off-stage I'm a completely different person. I'm not the kind to walk into an event and liven it up. You're more likely to meet me far from the crowd," she says.

That, she says, would explain why she still hasn't been to a night club. And, after a few seconds of consideration, prefers to leave it that way.

Bollywood calling

Isha Sharvani will be next seen in Darwaza Band Rakho (Keep the Door Closed). "This is from the Ram Gopal Varma camp. Then there's an action romantic film called Rocky with Zayed Khan. And the last is another one with Mukta Arts [filmmaker Subhash Ghai's company] called Good Boy Bad Boy with Tusshar Kapoor," she says.