Acash Shetty-Confessions of a Dancer
Acash Shetty says, “It all started in 2006 when I shifted to Pune for higher studies, which was a diploma course in Frankfinn. Apart from the course, I still had enough time to do something else. My mom decided to enroll my name in a dance class, for a couple of days I didn’t bother to go until the instructor himself showed up at my place and that was Mr. Terrence Joseph. Later, learning from him I became a fan of Terence sir, I used to copy his style and everything he did. He taught me not only dancing but also showed me ways how I can take dancing as a career. He is one of the most important people in my life.
Looking back at 2007, it was not a good option to tell my parents that I want to quit my hotel job, which was a placement I got through Frankfinn in Taj Blue Diamond in Pune at the back office. But I really wanted to take dancing as a career so somehow I managed to tell my parents and surprisingly they not only agreed but also rooted for me to give my best. That was the day I knew it is all in or not at all!
And like most of the strugglers, I started making trips to Mumbai every weekend for auditions, and during weekdays I used to take dance classes for daily income and take part in college competitions to keep the performer alive in me. After 3 years of auditioning, I finally got a breakthrough channel called “Life Ok” for a fiction show known as “Aasman Se Aage” as an actor. I was enjoying the process until one day they had to call off the show due to less response than they expected. I was quite happy that I had at least made it to the screen, thinking there will be a lot of people who would have noticed me and I will get work, was pretty confident. After 4 months, nothing turned up apart from a TV commercial. I started the process of auditioning again, I got a role-playing body double of actor “Ruslan Mumtaz”, it was a dance sequence. My new journey started from there as the choreographer liked my work and offered me to assist him. The work of an assistant choreographer is not that easy as it sounds. It was an amazing experience and I had to do it all from personal training of actors, to teaching about more than 100 dancers in a go, taking care of 500 junior artists, of course shooting for 48 hours straight surviving on coffee shots, dancing bare feet in the sand at 48°C at Bhuj to -4°C in Kashmir where it is difficult to stand and I had to dance in the snow for actor’s rehearsals. I was having the best time of my life until one day we were shooting for an ad with the south star “Allu Arjun” and there was a shot of jumping from a 3ft wall, was quite simple but I landed on my left ankle and it was a bad ligament tear. It was a straight 3 months rest, so were my dreams at a pause. In no time I was replaced from my work. Later after 3 months, I had to again start from zero, but life is all about second chances. After 3 months, I had to again start from zero, but life is all about second chances. After a while, I was offered to choreograph for a reality show called “Dance +” season 1 by a friend. I knew it was the right time to do something to make my name and my face in the industry. I joined and choreographed for :
Dance plus season 1
(question mark crew first runners up)
Dance plus season 2
(Bandits sync masters top 6 )
Dance plus season 3
( Few acts of Bir Radha Sherpa and AVP)
Dance plus season 4
(Chetan salunkhe winner of the season)
Dance plus season 5
( Sameep dhakne top 12 )
Super dancer all seasons choreographed for Vaibhav ghuge (my brother and best friend )
We won the second season.
Nach baliye
On-screen choreographer for
Vindu Dara Singh and wife Dina. Wild card
Avinash and palak
This show also made me a number one fan of Hrithik, which I performed for him and the video went viral.
Dance Maharashtra dance (Zee Yuva)
On-screen choreographer and mentor.
Today I canToday I can proudly call myself one of the most established choreographers in the TV industry. Just happy and blessed to be where I am and still feels like the journey has just begun. My mantra for life is Keep your eyes on the stars and feet on the ground.”