The 25 year-old Dharavi resident who claims to be the first Bihari to master Salsa, finds his name in the Limca records for dancing non-stop for 55 hours 15 mins, designs dancing shoes for Bollywood hotties, and educates actress Preity Zinta on her exact shoe size
The 25 year-old Dharavi resident who claims to be the first Bihari to master Salsa, finds his name in the Limca records for dancing non-stop for 55 hours 15 mins, designs dancing shoes for Bollywood hotties, and educates actress Preity Zinta on her exact shoe size
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The indomitable romantic in Jameel Shah would have us believe he is Jamal Malik from Slumdog Millionaire. He ran away from Darbhanga, a sleepy hamlet in Bihar, in 2001. Bollywood was the lure. He lived in Dharavi and sold leather mobile phone covers to make ends meet. With Rs 2,000 in his pocket, he chased a friend who owed him Rs 25,000, to Bangalore. Jameel never found his friend, forcing him to accept a watchman's job. Days slipped into desperate months before Jameel met Aunty Thomas, a resident at the society he worked for. She introduced him to a tenant who took the runaway kid to his first Salsa experience. Jameel remembers crying himself to sleep when he was denied the chance to learn the Latin dance because he had no cash. He returned to Mumbai once again, this time with a new dream to learn Salsa, and pestered celeb
choreographer Sandeep Soparkar. "Thankfully, sir took me on," smiles the 25 year-old.
His passion for dance spurred a fountainhead of ideas; one of themu00a0 was to make shoes that dancers slipped on. "Sir gave me a sample shoe and I tore it apart to study it. The first pair turned out stiff. But I kept improving with feedback from dancers," says Jameel who ordered catalogues from UK-based shoe companies to figure the technicality of shoe-making.
While learning the craft, he decided to take a Rs 8 lakh loan to buy workshop space at Dharavi. The first few months were disastrous; there were no orders thanks to apprehension over quality. It was going to take making a song-and-dance before customers trusted him over foreign options.
Word of mouth, and little help from Facebook, got Jameel's Shah Shoes running. The dancer has a lean army of three, all compatriots from Bihar Sarvan Kumar Ram, Manoj Kumar and Amresh Kumar Ram to help him out. The recent spate of reality dance shows (Jhalak Dikhlaja, Dance India Dance and Dancing Queen) has been good for business. "I also receive personal orders from those who learn dance. Suddenly, it's not just about learning an art, but losing weight too," he tells you in Hindi.
His clientele is star-spangled, with Pooja Bedi, Farah Khan, Kajol, Neha Dhupia and Amisha Patel on his list. He created shoes for Barbara Mori (Kites) and international popstar Kylie Minogue (Blue). "Preity Zinta orders from me too. She'd always shopped abroad, so, she wasn't even aware that her shoe size is 7. Maine unko bataya."
Shoemaking doesn't take away from his first love, though. An assistant to Soparkar, he has his name included in the Limca Book of Records 2006 for dancing continuously for 55 hours and 15 minutes. "I am the first Bihari who does Salsa and Ballroom dancing. Neighbours back home used to nag me, saying, 'Mujra karne jaata hai.' The same guys now approach me for cash."
On sale: Shoes for Tap Dancing, Salsa, Ballet, Contemporary Dance, Ballroom, Flamenco.
Call: Jameel Shah on 9892948207
Cost: Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500
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