The Dancer Who Slept on Mumbai's Station Platforms

Remo D'Souza dreamed of making a living through dance, and in the headline of an interview with the Press Trust of India he names Michael Jackson as the inspiration. His family was divided about the idea. His mother and sister supported him and let him go to Mumbai for a month, while his father was strongly opposed.

The month did not go as he had hoped. By the end of it, he says, he was on the streets, with no food and no money, sleeping at railway stations. He felt that his life was over and that he would have to go home and obey his father. Rather than admit it, he lied to his mother for months, telling her that he had work.

To avoid having to go back, he ended up teaching dance for a living. That was the situation until his first break in Bollywood, which he says came with Rangeela, Ram Gopal Varma's film, in 1995. In his words, that was when he got to showcase his talent.

The report does not give more details of where exactly he slept, or for how long. It records the contrast between the early weeks in Mumbai, when he was hiding his situation from his family, and the opportunity that arrived through Rangeela, which let him show what he could do.