Kumail Nanjiani was gleefully tricked into a Bollywood dance number for Marvel's 'Eternals'

At least he had 51 professional Bollywood dancers backing him up.
By Meera Navlakha  on 
Kumail Nanjiani was gleefully tricked into a Bollywood dance number for Marvel's 'Eternals'
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A Bollywood dance number was performed in Marvel's Eternals, by none other than Kumail Nanjiani — but he didn't quite know it was going to happen.

His character, Kingo, "goes off and becomes a Bollywood movie star," Nanjiani explained to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. The actor said he is not a dancer in real life, so Eternals director Chloé Zhao had to trick Nanjiani into doing the dance sequence, surprising him with the scene when they arrived to shoot in London — he thought it would be a Bollywood action sequence. But it turned out to be a great experience anyway.

"I walked into the gym, where we were doing the rehearsal, and I got really emotional. There were like 50 South Asian people," he said. "So many years, you barely have any South Asian people and suddenly there's like 52 of us in one scene, you know?"

Fallon played a clip of Nanjiani in the dance scene, to much applause and delight from the audience. To quote Nanjiani, "Yeah! Cheer for South Asia!"

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Topics Marvel

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Meera Navlakha
Culture Reporter

Meera is a Culture Reporter at Mashable, joining the UK team in 2021. She writes about digital culture, mental health, big tech, entertainment, and more. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, Vice, Vogue India, and others.


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