Shakira's hips Bollywood bound?

By Monica Chadha
BBC News, Mumbai

Shakira's dance routines at the MTV awards had a distinctly Indian flavour Enlarge Image

After shaking her hips Bollywood style during her performance at the recent MTV Awards, Colombian singer Shakira appears to have been converted.

The pop star has now expressed interest in doing a Bollywood music video.

She hopes that it can be done with the help of top Bollywood dance and film director, Farah Khan, who worked with her on the awards night performance.

Shakira had seven nominations at the New York ceremony, but only won best choreography for Hips Don't Lie.

Indian influence

"When we were rehearsing for the performance, she said we must do a video together," Ms Khan said.

"She said I must come over and work with her when she does a Bollywood style music video. Let's see when that happens."

There was definitely an Indian influence when the singer performed Hips Don't Lie at the MTV awards.

The singer quickly learnt Bollywood dance steps

She wore a dress similar to a sari suitably adapted for a bout of vigorous hip gyration.

Ms Khan said even though she worked for only four hours with Shakira the night before the performance, the singer picked up the Bollywood steps quite quickly.

"Shakira is one of the most fabulous dancers in the world now, and since the performance was highly talked about, there was tremendous pressure to do well," she said.

Ms Khan began working on dance steps as soon as she was approached by MTV New York to work with the singer.

She sent her some tapes of her choreographed moves, and said that Shakira "worked very hard with her every performance".

"She came to New York the night before the final performance from her concert in Canada and rehearsed with me for four hours. After we left, she continued to practise for another hour at least," Ms Khan said.

Shakira seemed to love the Indian steps.

"She wanted a lot of semi-classical routines with typical Indian steps, and we even did the famous Goddess Step with her standing in front, and all the dancers' hands outstretched at the back.

"She seemed to quite like that."

Let Peace Prevail

Ms Khan said while Shakira had a lot of ideas, quite a few of the choreographed steps had to be dropped or restricted because she was performing live and had very little time for rehearsal.

Shakira was nominated in seven categories but won only one award

Ms Khan said there are no plans as yet for Shakira to play a role or do a song in her forthcoming film, "Om Shanti Om" (Let Peace Prevail) but she would be "open to it" if the singer became available.

"I'd have to create an entire new song for Shakira should she want to be a part of my film!" said Ms Khan, who would also have to make space for the singer's large entourage.

Ms Khan said it was also a new experience to see performances from such well-known singers as Justin Timberlake and Beyonce, who were "dancing barely 10 metres away".

"The kind of money and production put in a show like this is on a completely different level," she said, "and to see all the top singers practise for their performances, they are all very, very hardworking.

"You know we say they are major divas and all that, but here they work equally hard," she said.