Overview
- A short clip of Ananya Panday performing a Bharatanatyam–hip‑hop‑locking fusion in the Vivek Soni film Chand Mera Dil, which released on Friday May 22, went viral and prompted widespread online mocking and organised criticism.
- Renowned classical dancers including Sonal Mansingh and Anita R Ratnam condemned the sequence as disrespectful and technically poor, saying the portrayal misrepresents Bharatanatyam’s technique and cultural meaning.
- Choreographer and mentor Sandip Soparrkar, co-star Charu Shankar, and Ananya’s father Chunky Panday publicly defended the scene as a deliberately cinematic, character-driven fusion and criticised the trolling of the actor.
- The film has continued a modest theatrical run with mixed-to-negative reviews and reported box-office receipts in the low crores, while makers have used promotions to keep audiences engaged.
- The debate has reopened longer-running questions about how Indian classical dance has been adapted over the last century, the precedents set by reality TV and social media for fusion work, and the risk that virality concentrates cultural gatekeeping online.