Boogie Woogie India

Yesterday I watched a movie called “Dostana” – I found it to be just alright. Not as good as the “paid” critics have given reviews that it is a “must” watch. I tell you money and big production houses can make people write wonders. My honest opinion of the movie was - it was too dragging, too much of revealing, the director seemed to got lost track on how and what he wanted to do with the movie and the confusion was clearly seen on screen and it was just not worth my 10 bucks! Talking about exposure and skimpily dressing, what’s up with that? Something is clearly wrong with Karan Johan as he is going bonkers these days. Anyway that brings me to today’s topic on dress code for Boogie Woogie.

I don’t know if the trend started on rating a movie in India yet or not? I know there are censor boards but in US, every movie and a show must have a rating – for example:

G – General Audiences

PG – Parental Guidance Suggested

PG13 – Parents Strongly Cautioned

R – Restricted

NC17 – No one under 17 Admitted

A – Adult

Even on Television channels, they have warnings at the start of the show giving either parental guidance or restricting a particular age and under. I feel that is better because then parents know what show their child can see or when they need to get them occupied with something else. I firmly believe what we sow, we reap that tomorrow. Children are our future and if their foundation is not set right, they can never grow to be good individuals tomorrow.

These days on TV programs – Indian Reality Dance Show’s most of them – the contestants are skimpily dressed and are all copying the western dance moves. Nothing is wrong in copying a western dance – you have the interest in learning a western dance – good go ahead but then that doesn’t mean you copy the dress as well to its tits and bits of pieces. One doesn’t have to be half nude to give a strong western performance. It just won’t be right - doesn’t matter what the latest fashion says. Period!

Also one must be comfortable in the clothes that they are wearing especially in dance competitions. Dance moves may require you to do certain activity and it is must that you should not be conscious while performing. Your mind and soul must be in your performance rather then thinking what is going to break when. Recently it did happen that one of the contestants had to leave her performance in middle and ran back stage because her strap broke. So why wear such clothes that will ruin your performance or get you to an awkward position? If that is the demand of the show then something is wrong somewhere and if an individual has a head over her shoulder then she will refuse or walk out on such demand. It doesn’t make sense in going along with such insane rules.

But luckily all rules are not insane. No wonder the more I watch, the more I adore Sony’s Boogie Woogie! Boogie Woogie is one clean show that keeps itself miles away from any such insane clothing. They have all categories of dancing and for all ages but you never spot anyone dressed indecently. Even when they are dressed in western, participants are given proper stockings, under shirts and proper shorts to wear. It is a complete family show.

I think almost 75 percent of Boogie Woogie fans are younger generation. The parents automatically get tagged along but it is one show they love getting tagged along as they know the show can never mean harm to their kids.

Okay let’s talk why the rules and code ethics are important. Not only it creates a good example of your show standards but also it acts as an education for all those participants that come to fill out forms. When they read the rules or are stopped from wearing so and so clothes or from dancing on songs that has vulgar meaning, it makes them think the reason behind this stopping. Later at some age they really do appreciate that someone corrected them from going wrong. It will also make them differentiate the good from the bad. And this is how a mentor, a Guru, and a teacher are looked upon – with HIGH RESPECT!

Another interesting perspective is that if we keep following the western culture, our own culture is going to get lost in thin air. We have such rich culture and we should be proud of it and also proud of our wear. And so if the other shows really are spending lavishly on clothes that will only end up in highlighting revealing clothes of their contestants or vice versa doesn’t mean that they are creating any good examples. But Boogie Woogie is surely creating good example by maintaining its strict do’s and don’ts.

We definitely don’t want our present and future generations to follow the monkey business. They are the future and I am proud that Boogie Woogie is helping them become good citizens as well as doing their part in keeping our culture alive.

One word for the Boogie Woogie Team – Bravo!!

Recently a lot of emails have been pouring in asking how to participate in Sony’s Boogie Woogie or what is the best way to get enrolled for an audition. Many know auditions are mostly over in most of the places for this year but this news should not make you feel low as the door to show case your talent is not closed yet.

Boogie Woogie Rules and regulations ask you to register for an audition in your nearby location but for some reason you are not able to register then there is nothing to worry about. You should send a video CD of your performance to the Mumbai office and you will be called upon based on your talent. I wrote about video CD in my previous articles too and it should be treated important. Why? Here is a scoop – the auditions that were held in different cities in India were mostly held by the Boogie Woogie team for recording purpose to be screened later. The results were not announced instantly. The participants were videotaped based on 2 minute of their performance and were sent back. These videos were or will be screened by Sony’s Boogie Woogie and will be called upon later if they meet the talent criteria. So you see whether you went for the audition or send them a video CD, it is going to be the same thing. What I see is - there is still time to show what you got and this is what I love about Boogie Woogie – nobody looses.

So if you were part of the audition and are waiting for the results to come, then please wait patiently as they say patience bear sweet fruit. But if you desperately wanted to go for an audition and did not get through to all those busy lines or unanswered lines and missed out on a face to face audition – don’t worry. You still got time. Do this:

• Get yourself in a costume.
• Get some help and make a Video CD of your performance.
• Choose a song that does not belong to the companies that we talked about yesterday.
• Choose a song that does not have any vulgar words in it.
• Make sure your CD is good quality - meaning a video and sound  should both be clear.
• Label your CD neatly with your name, song that you are performing and the movie it belongs to along with singer, Music Company.
• Write a cover letter showing your interest in audition for boogie woogie and along with your application, mail your Video CD to:

VIDEOCON BOOGIE WOOGIE,
Sony Entertainment Television,
Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd
(Formerly SET India Pvt Ltd)
3rd Floor, Interfae, building No 7,
off. Malad Link Road, Malad West,
Mumbai - 40064, Maharashtra State, India.

Official Website: www.setindia.com
Email: feedback.set@setindia.com

• Last but not least - Pray and stay positive!

When you video tape, tape in sufficient light. Also make sure no one is talking in middle of your performance. See that there is no disturbance. Please don’t get diverted while performing. Keep your expressions in place. Make sure your facial expressions and your movements are all in sync with the song that you have chosen to perform. Think about this - while recording your video CD, in case you go wrong, you can always correct that. That is so much better then the one time chance you would get in face to face auditions. So prepare well, do your best and leave the rest to God.

We do have Boogie Woogie phone numbers in contact but I would strongly advice NOT to call them. They don’t encourage phone calls and plus you don’t want to do anything that might irritate them and ruin your chances. I listed their “official website” and also their email address above for your convenience. You will always find their information handy on this site.

Lastly - remember, if you need any advice, suggestion or help, feel free to reach out to me. This site is solely a fans site, it is your site and you are free to discuss anything. Good Luck!!

As we are aware that whether you go for an audition or to perform in Boogie Woogie show, you are required to carry your own music CD. The song that will be performed needs to be carried by the participant and will not be provided by the Boogie Woogie Show. But this is not all – there is more towards it. Please read below carefully what the show talks about the music CD. Hope this will help you in preparing well:

Boogie Woogie Rules and Regulations say:

“Participants shall carry their own audio CD which is in good working condition for the purposes of rendering performance in the Auditions. It is advisable to carry more then one audio CD in case of any failure in the functioning of audio CD at the time of performance. Participants shall submit the audio CD to the team deployed by R&N TV for Auditions. The length of the song must not exceed 2 minutes and it should be on an audio CD format. MP3 audio is not accepted. The song choice must be Hindi or regional language Indian songs. All Indian songs available on standard Indian music labels are only acceptable. For Participants submitting a medley, the songs must be edited properly. Un-edited or badly edited songs shall lead to disqualification of participants. At the time of submission of audio CD, the participants must write down his/her name, the name of the song along with the album/ film from which it is taken, and the name of music company which has published the music of the film/album. Participants are prohibited from playing music owned and copyrighted by T-Series, Yash Raj, Big Music and any international music labels for their audition performance.”

Well I think they put the rule above pretty crisp and clear. Let’s talk about couple of the points which I see it as very important:

•    MP3’s are NOT allowed. Even though MP3’s are very popular and easily available over the net they still pose difficulty sometimes in playing them on many music systems. Many music systems do not play the MP3’s right. They get stuck or are not compatible like for instance when I download MP3’s on a CD and play on one of my music system; it plays the first few songs and will stop. The specification of that music player did say it is MP3 compatible but it is beyond me to understand why the music stops in middle. It does not happen on other music players. And we don’t know what kind of music system that will be there during audition so please carry an audio CD with you. Now if you have your song only in MP3 format, you can always burn that song on an audio CD. I will soon give details of how to burn an audio CD which will be in another article (it will help you in case you don’t know already.)

•    Boogie Woogie has listed few companies that you CANNOT play their music. T-Series, Yash Raj, Big Music and any international music labels. Reason? Copyright and other legal issues. Many of these companies have a rule that you cannot play their music without proper rights or permissions. I know Yash Raj Productions don’t even let the actors to perform on the music of their films that they acted in. Sharukh Khan is never seen singing or performing on any song that belongs to Yash Raj banner. They have some crazy rules and so does the other companies. I would say please do your homework well. Choose a song that does not belong to any of the above labels. You definitely don’t want to prepare one great performance and later you come to know that you are disqualified. So please stay away as far as possible from the above labels.

Remember – It is always better to be safe then sorry!