Choreographer-director Remo D'Souza, known for his hip-hop style of dancing, believes that the increasing popularity of international dance forms in the country seems to be overshadowing the Indian dance culture.
When asked if it's true that foreign dances are grabbing more eyeballs, D'Souza told IANS: "Absolutely! I have experienced it. When I was doing a reality show, and we did a week for Indian dance forms, the TRP (television rating points) used to fall down, and then the next week when we did full international dances, the TRP went up up."
D'Souza, whose forthcoming film "ABCD 2" has as many as around 20 different types of dance styles like contemporary and street style forms including hip-hop, says there's a dire need to preserve the culture of Indian dance style.
"I think they (International dance forms) are doing extremely well and at the same time fear that we are losing our own... we have to tell people that 'Hey guys, this is our Indian culture, keep watching it and support Indian dance forms'," D'Souza added.
Currently busy promoting "ABCD 2", a sequel to his 2013 dance-based film "ABCD - AnyBody Can Dance", the 43-year-old says "every Indian" should watch it. He naturally has a lot of expectations from it as he has "made this film with a lot of passion".
"I'm not expecting anything moneywise. But I'm expecting that people should come and experience the film. It is very close to my heart and every Indian should watch 'ABCD2'," he said.
The movie stars Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Prabhudheva and international dancer Lauren Gottlieb -- all popular names, as opposed to "ABCD", the cast of which was dominated by professional dancers.
Talking about how he chose his cast in both the films, D'Souza said: "I wanted to make a dance film which I wanted to make with only dancers and I wanted to prove that these guys can also act, and in the second one, I wanted to prove that I can make actors also dance."