Despite being Pt. Birju Maharaj’s granddaughter, Shinjini Kulkarni finding her own feet

She was three years old when the training started. Even childhood games revolved around dance. At different stages, she has been a witness to the God-like stature her grandfather Pt. Birju Maharaj enjoyed in the world of dance.

But Shinjini Kulkarni understood pretty early that as an artist it was important for her to separate herself from the identity of Maharaj’s granddaughter. “You cannot even imagine the pressure. And it gets amplified when you perform in cities where people have witnessed him on the stage. I feel it is important for me to live up to the expectations but also find my own voice. Every artist is different and that comes forth in their work,” Kulkarni, who is now the ninth generation of the Kalka Bindadin lineage tells IANS.

Though given a choice, she would have taken up Bharatnatyam but being born into a legacy, she decided otherwise. Realizing that to ‘remain’ a part of the family narrative, Kathak should be her choice, she adds, “I did not want to feel left out and excluded from the conversations,” smiles the dancer who has performed at the Khajuraho Dance Festival, Sankat MochanSamaroh, Taj Mahotsava, Chakradhar Samaroh, Kalidas Festival, Kathak Mahotsava, etc besides shows at New York, San Francisco, Houston, Minneapolis, Bangkok, Tehran, and Chabaha.

Trained by her grandfather, Kulkarni, who gave her first performance at the age of eight, stresses that she never missed out on a normal childhood or youth -- “Whenever a production is being created, so much goes behind the scenes which can be very exciting for a child. Just because I was being trained by a legend, does not mean that I was not expected to behave like a child. By the way, dance brought a lot to my student life. I took great pride in being a part of that community in college when people were bickering about silly things. And yeah, during college, when girls were competing on who will wear the shortest skirt, my leheriya dupattas would make many people pause,” she laughs.

A History Honours pass-out from St. Stephens College (DU) in the Capital, Kulkarni did think of preparing for UPSC but that would mean giving up on rehearsals, something she did not want to do. In Chandigarh recently where she enacted the role of Meera in ‘Veer Meera’ - a musical, she says that while it was important to be factually right about the subject, her effort was to lend the performance a new edge. “It is about what can be done differently. She has been depicted beautifully multiple times. But how to make the movements thought-provoking and leave my signature is what matters.”

Also a member of pure classical-based percussion band ‘LayaCurry’ that was created in early 2015 and brings the second generation of musicians, she says: “The duration of pieces is much shorter without compromising on purity.”

Kulkarni, who performed a dance sequence in Muzaffar Ali’s movie ‘Jaanisaar’ and will soon be seen as the lead dancer in a ballet to be staged at the Lotus Temple says he is in many ways a mentor for her. “I also associate myself with the aesthetics that he creates on stage and the camera. The way he builds up a dance is like a painting because primarily he is one (a painter). Of course, we have a shared love for everything Lucknow.”

While she may be exploring different art forms and training actors, cinema is not something she is planning to chase right now. “There is a certain contentment in what I am doing right now. Yahansukoonhai,” she concludes.