Shilpa Shetty talks about ‘The Desire’

Shilpa Shetty is currently busy with her project ‘The Desire‘, which revolves around Goutami (Shilpa), an accomplished Odissi dancer, and a talented artist Jai Leang (Yu) and follows the journey of their respective lives until they are separated and brought together again by destiny. This India-China project, under the banner of C-9 Motion Pictures in association with Indish Creations, also features Anupam Kher, Sachin Khedekar, Sheetal Menon and Nakul Vaid. The film, produced jointly by Sharad Hegde from Mumbai and Tracy Shiyun from China, is being directed by R. Sarath.
Shilpa is all praises for her Chinese co-star and wrote on her blog, “I heard my hero (Xia Yu) correcting people pronouncing his name and every time someone called out his name, it invariably was wrong.The exact pronunciation being S(h)iya Yeoh! - which means ’summer rain’. I dreaded calling out his name with the fear of getting it wrong. It was a funny sight till some people resigned to calling him ‘Sir!’ (It was easier). But he (Xia Yu) was too sweet, every time someone called out his name; he very patiently corrected it with a smile on his face.”
Shilpa took Odissi lessons from an Orissa-based dance guru Ratikant Mohapatra, son of legendary Odissi exponent late Kelucharan Mohapatra, for this venture and found the dance form tough to learn and perform. She wrote on her blog, “’Odissi is complicated and among all the songs I’ve ever shot, this has been the most difficult.”
However, the guru Mohapatra, was pleased with Shilpa’s dedication and said, “My working experience with Shilpa Shetty was very good. As an actress and Bharatnatyam dancer she was able to understand the style and form of Odissi and its execution. Practising in the morning and evening, Shilpa had no star tantrums and she proved herself to be a committed artiste.”