Glittery costumes. Bright umbrellas. Multi-coloured balloons. The 117-strong cast of Bollywood Love Story unleashes a burst of colour as dancers swirl onto the Esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle each evening.
Their five-minute show is being performed in the Scottish capital throughout this month at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is part of the renowned Edinburgh Festival.
The dance extravaganza has been creating quite a stir, with the typical boy-meets-girl-falls-in-love-gets-married kind of love story Hindi cinema is famous for.
“The audiences cheer out loud when our troupe enters,” says Sharupa Dutta, the show’s project manager, from Edinburgh.
It is the first time that a Bollywood-style musical has been part of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, marking a major shift in focus beyond the more traditional styles of music and dance of years gone by.
An expanded 50-minute version of Bollywood Love Story will also be performed during another part of the Edinburgh Festival, the Edinburgh Mela, on Saturday and Sunday.
The story
"Brigadier David Allfrey, the chief executive and producer of the Tattoo, has always been keen on showcasing India," says Bollywood Love Story's director, Sanjoy Roy, whose New Delhi company Teamwork Arts has been connecting Indian artists with the Edinburgh Festival for 15 years.
During a visit to India in 2012, Allfrey was impressed by a Bollywood film he saw and made a mental note to include something similar in the Tattoo.
Three years later, Bollywood Love Story is a fitting part of the Tattoo’s “East Meets West” theme.
“Introducing Bollywood was really pushing the boundaries in a military parade,” Roy says. The original plan was to have a dance sequence but “since we Indians are great storytellers, we suggested to him a musical story instead,” says Roy.
And so Bollywood Love Story, which has been staged in more than 12 countries in the past eight years, was developed for the 220,000-strong audience that would see it over 25 days in Edinburgh.
A multicultural community
Instead of flying in the entire team from India, Roy took a core team of 13 and chose 40 dancers from Edinburgh, who joined the rehearsals a week before the Tattoo began. In addition, 64 Highland dancers from several countries, who were already performing at the Tattoo, were also invited to take part.
“The show has now become a multicultural presentation, representing contemporary India, and a much more meaningful exchange for us,” Roy says.
The English dialogue and shorter duration make the show more palatable than a Hindi film for its international audience – but the immaculate fight sequences, fantastic music and romance keep the magic of Bollywood alive.
“The 5-minute version is really about the boy and girl finding each other, getting married and running off into the sunset,” says Dutta.
The longer version that will be performed at the Mela introduces more drama and conflict, as the girl’s father kidnaps the boy and beats him up in an attempt to force him to stay away from his daughter. But just as it would happen in Bollywood, love conquers all and the two get married amid a lot of pomp and ceremony.
Weathering the challenges
The biggest challenge has been getting the entire cast of 127 to practice together.
“Quite a few of the dancers have never been exposed to Bollywood dancing but are enjoying getting into that space, says Dutta. “Sometimes we work on movements and at others we are explaining the lyrics.”
New Delhi-based actor, dancer, aerial artist and movement therapist Rea Krishna plays the female lead Radha. She said the unpredictable Scottish weather sometimes leaves her freezing on the Esplanade.
“It gets very romantic when the raindrops start falling – but when the skirt starts getting heavier and the shoes are soaked, it is challenging to smile through it all,” she says.
Dancing every day at the Tattoo, the cast now knows that they can perform under most conditions.
“Whether we have tarmac under our feet or cobblestones, falling in love and getting married are a given,” adds Krishna.
Everyone loves a love story
The positive response to the show at the Tattoo shows that Bollywood has been accepted as part of mainstream Indian culture.
“People love the costumes, the props and the vibrant mood,” says Krishna. “And they love the hero’s fight sequence.”
Actor, acrobat and gymnast Sajid Akhtar, from New Delhi, who plays male lead Rahul, adds: “What they love the most is my dialogue: ‘Will you marry me, Radha?’ That’s when they cheer the loudest.”
• The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo continues until Saturday, at 9pm Mon-Fri, 7.30p Sat. The full version of Bollywood Love Story is at Edinburgh Mela at Leith Links onSaturday and Sunday. Tickets start from £4.
