10 Famous Celebrities Who Were Background Dancers Prior To Stardom

1 Shahid Kapoor

When we talk about celebrities who worked as background dancers before attaining stardom in Hindi films, the first name which automatically comes to our mind is of superstar Shahid Kapoor. We all know that Shahid was a background dancer in renowned choreographer Shaimak Davar’s dance troupe. He even featured in popular songs like ‘Ley Gayi Le Gayi’ from the Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor starrer romantic drama ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ (1997) and ‘Kabhi Aag Lage Lag Jaave’ from Anil Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s superhit film ‘Taal’ (1999). Whenever you see these songs on television or YouTube, you can easily spot the lean lad Shahid used to be back then.

Shahid is the son of renowned actors Pankaj Kapur and Neelima Azeem. Despite his family being so well-connect to the industry, Shahid never used their contacts to gain his footing in the Bollywood. He wanted to achieve success on his own and hence kept working tirelessly to make his dreams come true. While working for Shaimak Davar’s troupe, Shahid got an opportunity to feature in Aryans’ music video ‘Aankhon Mein, which turned out to be a chartbuster. After a couple of years, Shahid landed his first movie role in Ramesh Taurani’s teenage romance Ishq Vishq (2003) opposite Amrita Rao and Shenaz Treasurywala. The film emerged as a sleeper hit at the ticket window and the actor walked away with the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. There has been no looking back for the actor ever since. In a career of one and a half decade, Shahid has been part of some brilliant films like ‘Vivah’ (2006), ‘Jab We Met’ (2007), ‘Kaminey’ (2009), ‘Haider’ (2014) and ‘Udta Punjab’ (2016). The actor won the Filmfare Best Actor Male Award for his intense act in Vishal Bhardwaj’s film, ‘Haider’ (2014).

TRIVIA: Shahid Kapoor was voted as the ‘Sexiest Male Vegetarian In Asia’ by PETA in the year 2009.