EXCLUSIVE | 'Kites' choreographer Sandip Soparrkar: Tiger Shroff is as good a dancer as Hrithik Roshan but...'

Choreographer and actor Sandip Soparrkar who turned 60 in 2024 and Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2025 seem to be a lethal combo. The context here is GenS Life, an online community and platform dedicated to empowering individuals aged 60+ by helping them explore new opportunities, rediscover their passions, and celebrate life to its fullest.

GenS Life was a part of the esteemed Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2025, showcasing an inspiring opening act on January 30th and 1st February, choreographed by Soparrkar.

In an exclusive interview with Firstost, Soparrkar spoke about the same and a lot more.

Edited excerpts from the interview

What were your expectations from the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2025?

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It has been one of my favourite festivals. I remember way back in 2002 when the festival for the very first time introduced Western dance on its platform. I was the one who had performed the first Western dance on that platform. So it’s always a very special place for me, this festival. I’ve been performing there, and with different different themes, sometimes with Indian, sometimes Western sometimes mix of the 2, and today, when it has reached 25 years, it has been a long time for them.  

It’s Asia’s largest street art festival, and I think with pride I can say that I’m a part of it since the very beginning, and that’s what makes me feel so special about this festival.

What about your association with GenS Life?

This started just a couple of months back when I got to hear about it from one of my dear friends, Bhawana Somaaya, who’s also a journalist. And she kind of happened to mention to me that people above 60 are joining this platform, and is meant for people above 60. So I went on to it to have a look as to what this platform was about, and I was super impressed because this platform did not think that above 60 means your life has come to a standstill, or they did not believe that. You have retired now because you’re 60, you must sit at home and do it. Believed that you get this new new phase for you in your life.

You know we are talking about annual sports medal certificate. So we are living for our parents, our family. Then, after 25 to about 50, 55, we are living for to earn money, to earn house, to get a you know, to get a car, get married, have children, get them to school. All that is happening for us, which is a normal phase of second life. Now the 3rd phase is this phase, where your children have gotten married, they have settled down. You are not known. Maybe your own parents have passed away. Now you’re not going to impress anybody, only one you have to now take care is of your own self.

This is what GenS offers to their people who are a part of it. They’re giving them Yoga classes. Dance classes, travel discounts. There are discounts for health benefits. There is so much of advice for them, because nowadays the world has opened up because of Internet, and maybe the older generation are not that savvy with technology, so invest about investment, about health, about finance, there is so much of information which can be given to them, and the right information by the right people.

How does dance break stereotypes, especially when it comes to age?

According to me, being a dancer for the past 55, 60 years, I believe that dance is a part of everyone’s life. Dance is a part of our culture dance, a part of our human human being. So we all are dancing in some way or the other in our life. It’s just that we don’t realize it’s the dance of life. And after age of 60, I believe that all the tensions of life, the traumas that we have seen through there’s so much that we go through in life, Personally, professionally, financially, spiritually, socially, dance is the only meditation. I believe it is the ultimate form of spirituality.

What do you feel can be people’s takeaway who will be attending the festival this year?

You know, you’ll be surprised to know that this is the 1st time in 25 years that Kala Ghoda Festival for the very 1st time is having a senior citizen dance happening. So it is, I think, a breakthrough and a new achievement even for the Kalagara festival. So every time we have seen youngsters dance, we have seen children dance, and we have had the old people, so-called old people sit in front of you and clap for you.

I think now the tables have turned. Now it is time that the youngsters stand and clap for the elder people, because let’s not forget wherever we have reached today is because of them. That is why you’re sitting where you’re sitting today because of your parents, your grandparents’ support. So now I think it’s time for them to support the older generation.

You have worked with Hrithik Roshan in Kites. Do you have any anecdotes to share about your experience how he is as a dancer?

Oh, my God! I think he’s one of the best dancers of industry. I have not only done Kites for him, I have also done a couple of other movies. I have done his HRX brand launching. I have done the Britannia Ad for him and a couple of other works with him as well. You give him one movement, and he’ll take it up there. So, as a choreographer for us, it is super challenging to set anything for him, because we know it cannot be simple. It cannot be easy. It has to have its own benchmark and that benchmark, he will take it even more ahead. So when I work with him the second time, I have to go above what I did the last time, so he even challenges me as a choreographer. He challenges everyone with him around him because he is so perfect with everything that he does. Apart from his looks and his body, his dancing and acting skills, his dancing skills are extraordinary.

There was a time when Hindi cinema had some of the most iconic dancers, but I feel in recent times there has been a void. Do you have any actor in mind who is a good dancer, and who can actually take the the legacy of dance ahead?

I completely agree with you that the dance dance numbers itself in the films have reduced. There was a time when our films would have 10-14 song and dance numbers. You look at Mughal-E-Azam . Look at all those older movies they had. They were all actually musicals and they had dances every few minutes, and the dance would take the story ahead as well.

But in terms of dance, I would say Tiger Shroff has got a whole lot of potential. He is as good as Hrithik Roshan and extremely hardworking, dedicated. I have known him since he was a young boy, because Jackie Shroff is my dear friend, and I think he has superb potential to do even more because he is extremely hardworking, or the hard work.