To Dance or not to dance

After being asked to write a story about a young Indian man's life, who against all the odds has achieved a reasonable level of fame in the classical and established Indian entertainment world, I must admit being initially perplexed.

The project was hindered by a lack of in-depth information I received from Haleem. So, I decided to work with the 'skeleton' of information received and based a biographical/fictitious novel/ screenplay based on Haleem Khan's fascinating rise to fame from childhood to the present.

As the story unfolded I became aware of the potential of this story based upon Haleem's continual 'fight against all odds' in a Hindu majority world as a young male Muslim performing as a female. In fact, Haleem's challenges in India are universal and take place all over the planet where discrimination, prejudice and hate rear their ugly heads.

The manuscript is written mainly in the in the present tense because of Haleem's rising popularity in the Indian film world as an actor and, to enhance his already phenomenal reputation as a classical Indian dancer. The project became more and more interesting as scenario after scenario became reality.

Haleem's real-life from birth to the present has been thwart with discrimination, prejudice, homophobia attacks and fear because of his desire to perform as a female dancer in the classical Indian dance called, Kuchipudi. Based upon this rare and outstanding talent, I managed to form a novel / screenplay utilising every emotion possible i.e. love, hate, anguish, fear, joyfulness and commonly, paternal rejection, which causes many upsets and family disruption.