Aerial act brings glory for Cooch Behar boy

KOLKATA: When Kolkata-based Manik Paul won the sixth season of India’s Got Talent, it was a fairy-tale moment for thousands of residents of Cooch Behar who gate-crashed into his Cooch Behar residence where he grew up with his uncle.
Born in Assam, he lost his father to a terror attack by the Urfa in 1999. “I was attending my uncle’s marriage in Cooch Behar when this news reached us.We rushed back to find my father’s dead body in the house. I was just 5 years old and this incident shook me to the core,” he said.
He was in Assam till 13-14 years of age helping my mother run the tea-stall by washing the dishes and serving tea to the customers, when my mother realized that I should complete my schooling from Cooch Behar because there is more exposure and opportunities there. There he started learning martial arts, yoga side by side. “It was in the annual school functions that my talents first got noticed. I used to participate in the dance performances and everyone encouraged me by saying that I had potential to do more,” he added.
My first turning point was participating in a reality show named ‘Takkar’ to be aired in a Bengali television channel. I knew nothing about the show before a friend from my neighbourhood, Payal asked me to escort her to the audition of the show. “I remember I took Payal to the audition spot in Cooch Behar on my bicycle because there was no one to take her there. It was a chance for me to witness what reality shows are like. The organizers asked all of us standing there if someone can perform anything beyond dance and I told them about my martial arts and yoga skills. Of the two of us, they somehow chose me and I went on to win the contest,” he shared.
During this show in 2011, he was spotted by actress Debolina Dutta who referred him to dance choreographer Sudarshan Chakraborty. “When I went to Sudarshan Da’s studio for the first time, I was taken aback by the performance of the dancers. I wondered what was going on because I had never seen anything like that before -- let alone doing it. Later, when Sudarshan da took me under his wings, I realised they were aerial dancers and rope artists,” he said.
Choreographer Sudarshan Chakraborty behaved like a guru to him and provided him free food and lodging facility in his institute, ‘Sapphire’ where he lived and practiced for three years like in a gurukul. There, he learnt aerial and rope dance techniques before going to Mumbai to look for more learning and opportunities.
“I believe there is some repressed, violent, chaotic energy in him – probably stemming from the attack on his father – which he expresses in his dance. Also, he was very disciplined and hardworking -- he never said ‘no’ to anything. Once, I had asked him if he wants to perform Bharatnatyam dance, he didn’t decline. I remember that he would go for long runs, dive into the pool, and do yoga to keep himself fit,” said Sudarshan Chakraborty, choreographer and mentor. “For his mother, sending him away was hours of labour lost. I salute her for her sacrifice to help him chase his dream,” he added.
Meanwhile, he had also sneaked an audition at Dance India Dance against his Chakraborty’s wish. Though he couldn’t go beyond the first few rounds, his talent was spotted by Mumbai-based choreographer, Terence Lewis who later on, offered him full scholarship for being a student at his dance academy.
It was a rough ride for Manik when he landed in Mumbai in 2013 to look for work. He had not let his family know about his Mumbai visit and hence, couldn’t ask for money from them. He had worked in the housekeeping department of a posh beauty salon and later on, as an office boy with a corporate house to survive in the city. “They have called me after my victory on Saturday to come visit them. They had never imagined that a simple housekeeper who also doubled up as the janitor, could achieve something like this,” he smiled.
Soon, he got in touch with Uday Deshpande who agreed to teach him aerial and rope malkhamb (a traditional Indian gymnastic sport) while also looking after his boarding facilities. “I had to leave my job as an office boy because of the prolonged practice hours,” he shared.
Alongside, he called Terence Lewis who had asked him to give him a call whenever he comes to Mumbai. “Terence Lewis offered me to join his one-and-a-half-year course which costs Rs 3.5 lakh,” he said.
While pursuing this course, he heard about IGT audition taking place in Mumbai and just went there to try his luck. “It is still unbelievable that I won it,” he gushed.
“My audition performance was with parallel bars which I learnt at Sapphire in Kolkata. After I finished the act, the judges which included Malaika Arora Khan, Karan Johar and Kirron Kher, praised me saying,’Dil chhu liya’. This was a lot of encouragement for me,” he added.
He even found a fan in choreographer-filmmaker Remo D’souza who was present in one of the rounds and gave Manik a standing ovation and walked up to the stage to hug him after the performance.
Manik, who has won fifty lakh rupees and a car, wants to buy a flat in Mumbai so that he can live with his mother again. He has already got a couple of solo shows in Hyderabad and Dubai lined up and hopes to get a lot more work in the near future. His elder brother, Dayal Paul, who lives with their mother in Assam, said that though they had never seen any early signs in him he was very restless and rebellious. He wanted to stand out in whatever he did.