From stage to silver screen

Actor Haleem Khan, who is excited about his upcoming film ‘Ame Atadaite’, is a Kuchipudi dancer. He performed more than 800 solo and group dance shows in India and abroad. Besides that he has vast experience in teaching dance, choreographing both conventional and fusion and he also conducts dance workshops.

His debuted in Tollywood with the film ‘Nuvvila’ directed by Ravibabu in 2012 and till date he has acted in seven films. Speaking with The Hans India he shared his journey with dance and movies.

“In my first movie, I played a role of a gay person. I got a good response for it and many people appreciated me for doing a courageous role.

Later, I was approached for similar characters but I refused all of it. I rejected more than 25 films because all of them were giving me a homosexual role to portray and I did not do those films as I did not want to get typecast.

However, directors thought that I have attitude but that was not the case. And then, after a long wait for a good story, I bagged meaty roles in two films - ‘Ame Atadaite’ and ‘Shiva Naga’,” Haleem shared.

Haleem is playing the lead role in the film ‘Ame Atadaite’ and he dresses as a woman in the film. He is working alongside with stalwart Tanikella Bharani and ace comedian Ali. The audio of the film was launched recently and the movie is slated to be released on October 28 or November 4.

"Ame Atadaite is about a guy who comes to city from a village with many dreams. He wants to become an IAS officer but due to some reasons he dresses up and lives like a woman due to circumstances.

He takes this step to realise his goals. In impersonation of a woman, he faces many problems. This movie also has the reflection of Rajendra Prasad starrer - 'Madam'," he shared.

Haleem in real life performs Kuchipudi dressed as a woman. Sharing about his experience in portraying a woman on the silver screen he says: "Performing a woman’s impersonation in films is different from performing it on stages.

I feel it is an art and devotion while doing it on cultural venues. I did it in the movie with ease because I did it many times on stage. We have enough time and freedom while doing it in movies compared to stage shows. We have to be careful in live performance.

I never thought that I would become a hero in films. I chose Kuchipudi to propagate the oldest art form. One has to do the woman impersonation in their life to become a perfect Kuchipudi dancer," he explained.

Speaking about his next project ‘Shiva Naga’, he said, “I’m doing a negative role in it. My character is an introvert person who becomes a cunning killer. We are also looking to change the movie name to ‘1:43’ or ‘1-hour-43 minutes’ to create suspense about the movie,” he added.

“All the comforts of my life come from dance. Dance helped me to bag film opportunities. Most people think that only women perform Kuchipudi, however, about 100 years ago only men used to perform it.

In the beginning, I learned it secretly and Kaza Venkata Subhramanyam is my teacher, who gave me all the required guidance in dance. I did many mythological characters in my dance, in which my favourite is performing the role of Satyabhama.