Dubai

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So far all of my work in music videos has consisted of me dancing, as part of a group of backing dancers, to support the star. So it came as a big surprise to me when I found out that I had been selected to star in a music video in Dubai! I had a couple of rehearsals in Mumbai beforehand, where the choreographer's assistants taught me a brilliant, fast - paced, commercial routine. After learning the choreography I was then told that whilst dancing I would be lip syncing the Punjabi song. This concerned me slightly as I had no experience of dancing whilst lip syncing in my own language, let alone in a language I cannot speak a single word of. Also the lyrics were a completely different rhythm to the choreography I was doing which made things even more difficult - still, how hard can it be??

I flew out to Dubai with my agent, Sonu, on 22nd December. The first thing that struck me about Dubai was its cleanliness! After having spent so much time in Mumbai, where there is a lot of rubbish, waste, dust and smoke, Dubai looked so shiny and immaculate it was as if it had been built that very morning. The high rise buildings and skyscrapers were beautiful and the whole place seemed luxurious and futuristic. I was very excited to catch my first glimpse of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, and Burj Al Arab, the famous hotel shaped like a sail.

The shoot itself was the most challenging job I have ever done, but also the most enjoyable. On set I was looked after very well and given lots of encouragement from the production team. It felt very strange to be in the spotlight and have my own group of backing dancers, but I am so grateful to have been chosen to do it and never imagined when I took this contract that I would have been given the opportunity to do something like that. I found the lip syncing difficult but I was given a lot of support and managed to pull it off in the end.

The shoot finished on Christmas eve but I wasn't due to fly back to Mumbai until Boxing day night, so I had a whole two days to explore Dubai. On Christmas day I went with Sonu and my makeup artist from set, Neeha, to some of Dubai 's famous shopping malls. Dubai Mall is one of the biggest in the world and Neeha told me you would need over a week to explore it properly. The Christmas decorations and displays in the mall were so beautiful and, despite being so far from home and in a hot climate, I did feel christmassy. We went to the beach in the afternoon which I really enjoyed. In the evening we went to the top of Burj Khalifa. It is over 800 metres tall with over 160 floors (the 'At The Top' observation deck is on the 124th floor). We took the high speed elevator to the top which travels at 10 metres per second! When we arrived at the top we stepped out of the elevator to find the most spectacular view of Dubai! It was dark by this point and the city was all lit up and you could walk all the way around the observation deck to see the 360 degree view. There aren't really any words to describe this breath-taking view, even the pictures I put up still don't capture the beauty of it, but it was absolutely amazing and a great Christmas present!

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