You almost saw him and his dance troupe, the Wanted Ashiqz, on Season 7 of the hit TV show America’s Got Talent. Unfortunately, their act didn’t make it past the celebrity-judge round.
But Karup Meyyappan (MBA ’12), dancer and troupe production and set design chief, graphic designer, and sometimes-audio/video editor, is far from bitter. “Honestly, participating in the America’s Got Talent auditions was wonderful. It was definitely a learning experience we will never forget.”
The show’s producers contacted the Wanted Ashiqz (which translates into “the Wanted Hopeless Romantics”), requesting that the group audition. Seventy-five thousand acts tried out, but only 400 qualified for the next round. “Making it to the secondary auditions felt surreal,” Meyyappan says.
The Wanted Ashiqz has come a long way since it was started in 2002 by a few close friends who loved to dance but didn’t have an outlet to dance to their beloved Bollywood music. So the friends banded together to perform for a cultural show and debuted as the Wanted Ashiqz. “We were a sensation among the young Desi crowd (people of South Asian ethnicities—Indian, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, etc.). Over the years, we’ve evolved into a highly competitive Bollywood fusion troupe,” says Meyyappan, who became interested in dance in high school, inspired by the moves of music icons Michael Jackson and Missy Elliott.
Currently the troupe, whose lineup changes on a regular basis, has 15 active members. Of the current membership, four are Baruch students—Zicklin undergrads Anojan Rudra, Jonathan Rudra, and Ahilan Sinnathurai and grad student Meyyappan—and two are alumni—current troupe captain Ashif Gazi (’07) and Protyoi Chowdhury (’10). (Baruchians Abdur Ashique [’09] and Nikhil Karnavat [’06] were active with the troupe in the past.) The rest come from a variety of CUNY, SUNY, and other schools.
So what’s next for the Wanted Ashiqz? Of course, they want to perfect their skills and build on their early successes in the American dance circuit, reveals Meyyappan, who adds that everyone in the troupe “wishes to generate greater exposure for the South Asian Dance Circuit that helped us get our start.”
—Diane Harrigan
Follow the Wanted Ashiqz at www.thewantedashiqz.com and watch the troupe perform on YouTube