Siddhi Goel

Siddhi Goel is a Kathak dancer, teacher and choreographer based in Delhi. She is a disciple of Guru Pt Jai Kishan Maharaj of the Lucknow Gharana and alumna of Kathak Kendra Delhi and School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She was a Sahapedia UNESCO Fellow for 2017. 

This grant will enable Siddhi to study the contributions of courtesans to the shaping of the Hindi film industry during the first half of the twentieth century. She will explore how courtesans became not only some of the first singers, dancers and actors but also directors, producers, lyricists and music composers, thus highlighting their entrepreneurial roles that built the foundation of the industry. She will also study the creative and economic labour of courtesans and Kathak dancers whose narratives are absent in the mainstream discourse on cinema histories in India.

According to Siddhi, from a creative point of view, the modern-day Kathak owes significantly to the dance of courtesans from North India. The Anti Nautch Movement in the late 19th and early 20th century in India resulted in the institutionalised marginalisation of courtesans that robbed them of their work and social status. Consequently, many courtesans migrated to the film industry for work. Being a diverse group of women trained in performing arts, singing and dancing came naturally to them. Additionally, they were among the few women who could legally own and pass on property. Those of them with strong social standing did not limit themselves to singing and dancing, and chose to invest in films too. They opened production houses and formed probably the first group of working women in the emerging modern film industry. The migration of courtesans from salons to the film industry is an important but underexplored chapter of the history of cinema as well as Kathak in India and forms the crux of Siddhi’s study. 

Alongside the courtesans, Siddhi will research into the life and work of Kathak guru Lacchu Maharaj of the Lucknow Gharana who is credited with choreographing iconic songs of movies such as Pakeezah and Mughal-e-Azam. Since he was closely associated with courtesans, Siddhi believes that his life and work could provide a sense of what performances by courtesans looked like in their heydays. He also happens to be the paternal granduncle of Siddhi’s own Kathak guru, so she finds herself directly associated with the lineage of Kathak artists with access to some old and rare Bandishes and Thumris – many of which were used in early Hindi films. With inside knowledge of the aesthetic, training styles and repertoire of the Lucknow Gharana of Kathak, Siddhi will study the techniques of courtesan performances from a personal creative lens. In particular, she would focus on the highly imaginative and interpretive engagement with text in the performances of these courtesans, building layer upon layer of meaning, portrayed with subtle gestures, glances, movements and facial expressions. 

The outcome of this project will be a multimedia exhibition with audiovisual interviews, podcasts, short narrative films and graphic illustrations. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final reports will be multimedia material generated for the exhibition and a link to the website that will host this content.