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She played the role of Maya in an English musical Miss Bollywood where she flaunted dhoti pants and jewelled anarkali kurtas specially designed by fashion designer Neeta Lulla All smiles: Actress Shilpa Shetty with fashion designer Neeta Lulla at the premiere of the musical We may have long forgotten actor Shilpa Shetty’s Big Brother win, and mini hysteria that followed. But Berlin hasn’t. Berlin! Yes, Shilpa was there recently to stage the premiere of Miss Bollywood, an English musical. “I knew Shilpa was a well-known face internationally, but I didn’t anticipate this. When she arrived on stage, all hell broke loose,” says fashion designer Neeta Lulla, who designed Shilpa’s 15-garment look for the play. Directed and choreographed by Ganesh Hegde, who’s made Shahrukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan dance to his tunes, the musical involved 40 dancers recreating Bollywood classic dance sequences, while Shilpa played Maya, a classical dancer and choreographer who moves from India to London to open a dance academy. Following the brief to keep Shilpa’s look ‘sexy Indian fusion’, Neeta used a burst of Indian colours, while the silhouettes included dhoti pants and jewelled Anarkali kurtas. Veejay Anoushka Dandekar, who also features in the musical, had a change of 14 garments. “I thought it would be a cakewalk, but designing for a stage production is a totally different experience. For starters, there are no retakes. Shilpa had to emote, dance and deliver dialogues — all in an outfit, that I had to make sure was glamorous yet wearable. Right fabrics, cuts and techniques were employed to allow fluid movement, and since there was very little time to change between scenes, we had to create outfits that performed a dual function,” recalls Neeta. Miss Bollywood will open the UK leg of its European tour, at the Manchester Opera House on November 3, before continuing to seven different venues, culminating with a two-night performance on December 12 and 13 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. “The exam has just begun,” laughs Neeta, “I have already begun working on creating triplicates of each garment in case something goes wrong!” The story of Maya Miss Bollywood is set in London while the city is preparing for the 2012 Olympics. It follows the story of Maya, who arrives from India to set up a dance academy in a soon-to-be-demolished East London building. She finds herself thrust into the limelight, where she must either sink or swim. Her tribulations include the unwanted attentions of a famous but predatory choreographer and a jealous diva. The musical also explores, though subtly, the cultural divide between characters with Asian heritage, but those who consider themselves totally British, and those who are from India in search of fame and fortune in Europe's multi-cultural capital city.