The professor is a man of few words. But when he gets moving to groovy tunes, he dances up a hell of a storm — one that gets the whole nation hooked. And leaves even Govinda impressed. After winning hordes of admirers with his video of dancing to Aapke aa jaane se at a wedding, Sanjeev Srivastava a.k.a. Dancing Uncle has gone viral again — this time grooving to Hrithik Roshan’s hit number Kaho na pyar hai.
Shooting to viral fame has changed life radically for Srivastava, an electronics professor at Bhabha Engineering Research Institute. He has been teaching electronics for 13 years now.
“Everything has changed and it all feels very confusing right now. I got 1,000 calls in just a week and I obviously couldn’t answer all. It was exciting but also stressful. I haven’t gone to teach in college for the last five weeks. I’m in Mumbai now and I have no idea what life has in store for me,” says the man with the killer moves.
Dance has always been his passion, and he started dancing at the age of 10. “My mother was a Bharatnatyam dancer. I picked up a few moves of that dance form and created my own moves from it,” he says. But in 1999 he met with an accident that left his left knee injured. And that put an end to all his dreams of taking up dancing professionally. “Now I dance just at parties and on Sundays. I have my parents, children and wife to look after, so I don’t really get much time to indulge in my passion for dancing,” he says.
About his hobbies apart from dancing, he says, “I love theatre and used to attend rehearsals for plays. I love listening to music and Jagjit Singh’s ghazals are an all-time favourite. My favourite dancer is Mithun Chakraborty since 1982 and I still try to copy his moves. Before that, my idol was Shammi Kapoor.”
Basking in his newfound fame, he says, “The message that I would like to pass on to people is: Music and dance are great stress-busters and they make one feel better. I am 47 years old but still feel young. I plan to open a dance school in Bhopal where I will conduct dance classes on Sundays. As of now, I’m focusing on getting my life in order and on track. I have been approached by many people who want to sign contracts with me and are keen to work with me. I feel so lucky.”
HT08
