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‘I had to wake up at 6.30 to belly dance’

Turkish belly dancer
urkish belly dancer. (TOI Photo)
Tanyeli, the most famous Turkish belly dancer the world has ever seen, is known to charge as much as US $40,000 for a performance, but for Bollywood the beautiful belle makes a concession. "I charge only US $25,000 because I love India, the people, culture and Bollywood.

I have a huge collection of Hindi film DVDs," she told BT after shaking her belly and booty for Apoorva Lakhia's Mission Istanbul. "He's not an easy man to work with," she complained, "I had to wake up at 6.30 am every day. And I hardly danced a minute before everyone started shouting, 'Stop, Cut!' I'm really not used to that. At home, my day begins at 11... I'm the master of the stage and nobody tells me what to do."

But she enjoyed the experience and may be doing another dance number for Apoorva in his next Bollywood film. She's been dancing since she was 18, that was 12 years ago, her mother was a belly dancer and so was her grandmother. "Belly dancing isn't entertainment; it's an important art form. It's far away from getting atop bar tables and providing cheap thrills. It's aesthetic, beautiful, and graceful and requires unique talent," said Tanyeli who has met Shah Rukh Khan and is known to the Kapoors and Sanjay Khan's family.

Turkey being a Muslim country, belly dancing wasn't easy for her. "But I'm loyal to my culture, and I respect my profession, so people respect me. I'm not looked down upon," said Tanyeli who believes she introduced Indian culture in Turkey. "I learned belly dancing in the authentic Turkish Anatolian style, but to bring
about variation in my performance, I began belly dancing to Bollywood numbers. One of the first Hindi songs that I danced to was Awaara Hoon... I don't know Hindi, and I didn't know it was a sad song," rued the dancer.




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