Sandip Sopparkar clears the air about ‘fake’ royal invite

By Subhash K. Jha -

May 2, 2011 - 12:00 AM IST

Sandip Sopparkar clears the air about ‘fake’ royal invite

Hurt, angry and bewildered for being branded a liar choreographer Sandip Sopparkar is seriously considering legal action.

Says Sopparkar, "I will take action with the support of some friends. I first need this media-bashing to sink in. I just wonder where it will end! Once my health improves, I'll look into the issue. First I need to start walking again. I don't want the mental stress to further damage my health."

Now that the royal wedding is over, we need to ask ourselves if we were taken for a royal ride by choreographer Sandeep Sopparkar who according to a section of the media faked an invitation to the century's most prestigious wedding.

But Sopparkar maintains his stand. Sounding extremely hurt, and not only because of the knee injury that apparently put him out of action at Buckingham Palace, the well-known choreographer who is now being labelled a "serial liar" defended himself, "I am repeatedly asking myself why I've been subjected to this treatment. Please check the Daily Mail (London) dated April 24. In the post-wedding celebration-list, me and my wife are clearly mentioned as performers .Don't tell me people feel I arranged that too! I was practising for over two months. Manish Malhotra was making the clothes. Kangna Ranaut was to unveil the invitation. The venue was booked. The security was arranged. Why would I do all of this for a faked invite?" Manish Malhotra confirms that he did Sandip and wife Jesse's outfits and the fitting.

So then why has the Buckingham Palace denied inviting Sopparkar? The choreographer says he is clueless. "The function where we were to dance was completely private, not meant for media scrutiny at all. So it makes sense on some level if there was a denial about my invitation. As for the grammatical error in my invitation they need to be checked with the officials who sent it. If I was to make up the invitation why would I write wrong English? I am educated enough to write a decent invite. And why would I use the name of James Kidner who is an ex-assistant at the Palace? I'd have faked the name of a current assistant."

In his defence, Sopparkar says that the first story that came out in the Indian media about his performance with his wife at the royal wedding was from the British press. "That's how the Indian media got to know. How can I fool the international press. And why?"

Sopparkar says he informed Kangna Ranaut about his knee injury and inability to attend the royal wedding on Monday night. And now with all flak from the media, Sopparkar is doubly distressed. "With all the pain, medicines, pain killers now these false accusations of faking an invite...My wife and I are indeed very upset. Even my colleague Shaimak Davar has spoken ill of us. Commenting without knowing the facts is not right."

Repudiating the reputation for repeatedly planting lies about his association with international celebrities, Sopparkar says, "I was never dating Britney Spears. I am not the kind of person to date a celebrity for publicity. So why would I say I was? At that time, I was dating Jesse Randhawa and had just adopted my son. The US media had brought this out when I was involved in the making of her video. I had gifted her stuff for Christmas. Our culture teaches us to greet guests with gifts. Even Arjun Rampal gifted a sari to some Hollywood actress when she shot with him. Because my gift was a middleclass one it (friendship with Britney) was made out to be an affair. I was professionally involved with Britney, not personally."

Cribs Sopparkar, "The press writes about people who have been bad-mouthing me. With quotes from them. What about the support that I've received on Facebook? This is India. Here contacts work. Unfortunately, I don't know any ministers, cops or civil servants. If I was in Germany where I learnt dance things would be different. God is with me. I've harmed no one. I've been true to my work. And my heart is clean."

About the evening celebrations on Friday after the royal wedding, Katie Nicholl wrote on April 23 on the internet version of the Daily Mail, "Just 300 guests have been invited to the exclusive party, which includes a drinks reception from 7 pm followed by a dinner and speeches and then dancing...Charles and Camilla, who have arranged for a performance by Bollywood dance duo Sandip Sopparkar and his wife Jesse Randhawa, have asked around 100 family and friends..."

And in the Telegraph, London Caroline Gammell wrote on 29 April, "Sandip Sopparkar and his wife Jesse Randhawa, the Bollywood dancers, were supposed to have been performing but Sopparkar slipped during rehearsals on Monday, injured his knee, and has been advised to take complete bed rest."

The case rests.