I want to act, says choreographer Terence Lewis

Choreographer Terence Lewis, who is well-known as one of the judges in the dance reality show Dance India Dance, says he wants to become an actor.

Terence started his career as a choreographer and has done his specialisation in Indian folk, Neo-classical and contemporary dance forms. He also runs a dance institute named Terence Lewis Contemporary Dance Company.

He has choreographed dances in Bollywood films like Lagaan, Jhankaar Beats, Naach and others. Apart from this, he also choreographed international stage shows, Indian contemporary performances, mega Bollywood shows and several music videos.

Now after a successful stint as a choreographer, Terence Lewis says he wants to try his hand at acting.

“I would like to explore myself as an actor. I have been dancing for a long time now it is time for me to explore other avenues. As a kid I used to sing, dance, I was into dramatics. I would love to pursue being an actor but not as such as a hero,” Terence Lewis said.

“That is not something I aspire to do. By an actor I mean a nice role, where I am convinced and I feel I can do something different and challenging,” he said.

Well, it is the on screen portrayal of characters that lured Terence Lewis towards acting, he likes living someone else’s life on screen.

“I want to become an actor not because I want money and become more famous. I don’t want that. I want to contribute to good cinema. I feel when I look at the characters played on screen by actors, I wonder how it would be to think or live that person’s life. By being an actor, one can explore various personalities of a human being, be that person, behave and live that person’s life and then you are back to your normal life,” he added.

As an actor, Terence Lewis wants to be part of films that are different and not the typical Bollywood masala ones.

“I would like to be part of unparallelled, unconventional but yet fun cinema. Cinema that can be uplifting and not depressing, I will not do any kind of art film that is depressing, which makes you feel horrible,” he said.

Even before he takes up acting, Terence Lewis has a list of directors like Anurag Basu, Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bharadwaj, Farhan Akhtar with whom he would like to work.

“There are lots of roles… characters in their films that are interesting. I would want to change my look, become like a common man, go de-glam,” he said.

Apart from this, Terence also aspires to take up direction someday. However, he feels that he would not be able to take up the task.

“I would like to, but for me, the responsibility is tremendous. When you turn towards direction, then one has to take responsibility for every department and I think right now I wouldn’t be able to take that stress. Meanwhile, Terence will be seen judging yet another reality show Hindustan Ke Hunarbaaz with actress Sonali Bendre as co-judge. We felt that people don’t get exposure to show their talent. Right now singing and dancing has got a big platform but there are other talents too. The concept is different. There is no stress and pressure. It is about looking at talent, understand their story and background,” he said.

There is no winner, no marks or points for any performance on the show. “We don’t have any competition of sorts in this show, there is no elimination. There is no report card, or marks. Pre-auditioning happens, the casting agent source out talented children from various parts of the country, they are called in they perform and we give them our feedback,” he said.