Sooni Taraporevala brings the specialized style of dancing called waacking to Indian viewers with Waack Girls, which will premiere on Amazon Prime on November 22. The question is, does the audience have a chance to accept a narrative that is based on such an odd art form?.
It revolves around a six-member waacking dance ensemble, which consists of ladies from Kolkata. Waacking is one of the dance forms, adopted during the 1970s by various groups of American LGBTQ+, which helps reflect freedom and individuality. The series, featuring Mekhola Bose and Rytasha Rathore, tries to combine dance, drama, and intimate stories.
In essence, the performance utilizes dance in defying social mores. Kolkata’s cosmopolitan cultural backdrop might prove an amiable setting but in a country that is basically conservative, waacking’s showiness may still be a hard sell. The challenge will be finding an extremely sensible way of presenting this subculture.
For example, the bold-thematic series Made in Heaven had enjoyed great success on the streaming platforms like Amazon Prime. In contrast to that, reality show Waack Girls, which focuses niché height of artistry, will have to strike a chord between its niche artistic focus and mainstream storytelling to win the hearts of viewers beyond dance enthusiasts. The mass market would both be attracted and repelled by this mixture of mainstream and niche content.
It then leaves it up to Waack Girls to determine exactly how ready Indian audiences are for out-of-the-box stories. If it works, then it probably sets a new benchmarking direction for creative storytelling in Indian entertainment. Of course, it would depend on how well it suits changing preferences for digital content, however if accepted.
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