Seven classical dances in one song for Billion Dollar Baby

Nineteen-year-old Shriya Dinakar gears up for her debut directorial venture Billion Dollar Baby. The young astronaut-turned-filmmaker is also a trained dancer across various styles and it is her various strengths that she has tried to incorporate in her debut venture. The film, which aims to entertain and educate, has a song titled Vande Mataram. The song will see Shriya performing seven classical dances from across India.“This is a national integration song. I’ve performed traditional dance sequences like Bharatnatyam of Tamil Nadu, Kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, Yashagana and folk dances of Karnataka, Mohiniattam of Kerala, Kathak of Northern India, Odissi of Odisha and Manipuri of Northeast India. This song is written by K Kalyan and choreographed by Harikrishna. Chitra and Vijay Prakash did the playback singing for the song. My aim was to put forth some cultural education to many youngsters who wouldn’t be aware of these dance forms,”says Shriya.