Apoorva Lakhia shelled out $25,000 for Turkish dancer

Mumbai, May 7 (IANS) Turkish ballet dancer Tanyeli charges a high $5,000 per day, but director Apoorva Lakhia still roped in the exorbitantly expensive dancer for a special song in "Mission Istanbul" with Zayed Khan.

"We had to pay her $5,000 per day. The dance took five days," Lakhia, who directed last year's hit film "Shootout At Lokhandwala", told IANS.

Zayed can't get over the experience. He said: "Tanyeli is a Turkish dancer. And she's very popular back home. You've to see her dance. She's awesome. And she's not just talented she's also a wonderful human being."

Since Zayed isn't much of a dancer, how did he keep pace with the stupendous ballet dancer?

"I wasn't even trying to keep pace with her. I just enjoy dancing. So I just grooved with her."

Adds Lakhia: "Tanyeli is very popular all over the world. She has danced for Bill Clinton and the Queen of England. I heard about her while shooting in Turkey. We bought the rights of the Bob Sinclair chartbuster 'World Hold On' and we turned it around.

"Though Anu Malik tunes the rest of the songs, we got Shamir Tandon to do this special track 'Hamara kal hamara aaj hamare hi hathon mein hai' that Kunal Gunjawala and his wife Gayatri Iyer sang. Rajiv Goswami choreographed the track. It has turned out to be something special."

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Mission Istanbul