One of the scenes from Eternals getting the most buzz is a huge dance in the first half of the movie. It’s not just any dance number, though. It’s a Bollywood dance scene with a bevy of actors in traditional, colorful South-Asian garb, complete with symmetrical circles and a crane shot from above.
The scene involves Kumail Nanjiani, the first South-Asian superhero to appear in a Marvel movie. He plays Kingo in the movie. Nanjiani recently appeared on episode 113 of the D23 Inside Disney podcast to provide some insight into how that scene came about and how he felt about it. (You can also see the scene for yourself below.)
It turns out Nanjiani was a little trepidatious about filming the scene at first.
“I started working with a dance teacher/choreographer months before because I was terrified. And then the actual rehearsal, so we had a gym in the studio, and I walked in and there were 50 South-Asian dancers,” Nanjiani said.
The amount of South-Asian actors in the scene had a special effect on Nanjiani.
“You know, to go from not having many South-Asian people in these movies at all to suddenly over 50 of them in one scene I got really, I got really emotional seeing them all there. It was really beautiful and we all really bonded.”
The dancers, Nanjiani said, made sure that he knew what he was doing.
“So then it was just sort of working with them. And they were really excited to be part of the movie, but they also went out of their way to make me feel comfortable because they’re professional dancers and I’m not. It ended up being a very joyful experience.”
That wasn’t the end of it, either. Nanjiani said that he and the actors were all going to do something special together.
“They bought out a theater and I’m going to a specific screening (with them).”
What did you think of this incredible moment of diversity in Eternals? Sound off in the comments!
