Hi Prishika,

I totally agree with you. Watching the Dancing with the Stars Bollywood night felt like we'd gone back in time, when loosely implied rasicm was allowed on television.

I was infuriated by the choreography, the head wobbling with the "oh my golly gosh" in the "indian" accent, and the shocking singing. Have these people never met an Indian in their life??? Are they that sheltered?? If the answer is yes, then i'm very worried to know that this type of shameless stereotyping will just promote further ignorance.

I dont think they realised that by (poorly) attempting to dance to an indian song, attempting to dress indian (one of the contestants was in a belly dancing outfit for crying out loud!!), attempting (poorly) to sing indian songs, and doing a poor impersonation of an accent, they're not doing "bollywood" but instead are insulting all aspects of the indian culture. From our accent, to our clothes, to our mannerisms, and social activities.

I will never be watching dancing with the stars again, because if Channel 7 thinks it'll boost its ratings by pulling off a stunt like this, they will now find that they've possibly lost more viewers as a result, starting with me.

BOOOOOOOO FOR DANCING WITH THE STARS BOLLYWOOD ATTEMPT!!!!

What an utter load of rubbish. Bollywood night? Is that what it was? In my anticipation of some form of cultural recognition, I was duped by the channel 7 marketing machine into expecting some kind of actual quality fare. Not a fan of the Dancing with the Stars "phenomena," I tuned in tonight to view what my grandmother excitedly called "white ladies dressed in sarees," and a general celebration of the beauty of Bollywood (which is, vicariously, Indian culture). Instead, what I received was absolute bullshit. Excuse my language, but really, were the obnoxious head waving and ignorant ‘authentic accent’ sound bite necessary? If it wasn’t enough that Sonia Kruger ignorantly tried to pass off some D-List designer’s creation as even remotely resembling a saree, the obviously over-paid crew at ‘Dancing’ didn’t even really bother to research what “Bollywood dancing” actually is. Whoever that choreographer was, she sure as hell wasn’t Indian. And however lovely that dancing was(to the extent that we can expect from these movement-challenged ‘stars’), it made a mockery of the complexity and beauty of contemporary Indian dancing. How could they possibly hope to pass off that Zorba-esque hand to elbow action as remotely a part of Indian dancing? I’d like to know how many Bollywood routines they actually took a look at? It’s really not that hard, it’s all on you tube these days - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiIL-w_jD8o .There’s a sample. And to add insult to injury, did they really need those awful (obviously non-indian) vocalists to massacre our music? It’s not just high-pitched warbling, there is actual melody and rhythm behind it. It may just be a TV show, but this ratings motivated gimmick has left me, an 18 year old university student (yes, Indian), outraged. It is absolutely disrespectful to rape a cultural identity with such an ignorant, unresearched, inauthentic and half arsed attempt, Channel 7. The only thing this so-called Bollywood night achieved is to perpetuate stereotypes and promote absolute ignorance. And isn’t it interesting that with their choreography, their music, their dear Sonia’s designer - they chose to leave Indians out of the mix altogether. Shameful exploitation.