Bollywood Talent | Media Reviews

It's "American Idol" meets Bollywood. Amateur dancers and models will mingle with celebrity Indian entertainers at New England's first Bollywood Talent Show.

Pop singer Sunidhi Chauhan and model Pooja Batra will perform at the show, while local hopefuls compete in modeling and dance contests.

Ravi Chaudhary, whose event-management company Manoranjan Unlimited is organizing the show, said it's a chance for potential stars to gain some exposure.

"The main thing is to get recognized and perform at a professional level," he said. "And who knows, they might get discovered."

Chaudhary has invited Bollywood film producers - friends from his childhood in Bombay - to be judges at the show. Chauhan, Batra, and local businessmen will probably also be on the judges' panel, Chaudhary said.

Contestants, ages 8 to 25, will compete in five categories: best solo dancer, best duet dancers, best group dance, best solo modeling performance, and best duet modeling performance.

The idea for the Bollywood Talent Show popped up this summer during the Miss India New England Pageant, which Chaudhary helped organize.

"What we noticed is there are so many Indian kids and they have so much talent in dancing, singing and comedy and everything," Chaudhary said. "But they never really get an opportunity to perform at a professional level and be recognized and eventually discovered."

Many youths perform in community events, but would like to take their talent to the next level, he said. Chaudhary spoke to a friend in London who told him that Bollywood talent contests are commonplace there.

"A lot of times in such talent shows, the Bollywood producers, they get actively involved and sometimes select people for their movies," Chaudhary said.

Many Bollywood movies are filmed in Europe, particularly in London and Switzerland, and producers often look for local actors, he said.

Chaudhary decided it was time to take the search for new Bollywood talent to the United States.

If the Boston show is successful, he hopes to hold contests throughout the country next year.

The Bollywood Talent Show will last about three hours, with about half the time devoted to amateurs and the other half to the Indian stars.

Chauhan is no stranger to talent searches: That's how she was discovered when she was a child.

At age 18, she received the R.D. Burman Award for most promising newcomer at the Filmfare Awards in 2000. Her songs have been featured in the movies, "Mast," "Jungle," and "Mission Kashmir."

Batra, who represented India in the Miss International contest in the early 1990s, is a model who has acted in about a dozen Bollywood and South Indian films. Her credits include "Virasat" and "Bhai."

The actresses will join winners after the talent contest for an invitation-only dinner and dance party at Mantra.

The contest will be at 6 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 10, at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston. Tickets cost $20, $35 and $50 and can be purchased at ticketmaster.com or by calling the Berklee box office at 617-747-2261 or Chaudhary at 617-869-2140.