The
Cheetah Girls:
In India!
by Lynn Barker
 The
Cheetah Girls, now consisting of Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely
Williams since the Raven-Symone character went to college, have been to
Spain and now tackle Bollywood! Shot on location in India, "The Cheetah
Girls: One World" is an opulent, colorful dancin'/singin' Disney
Channel Movie airing this Friday. Story goes; the girls travel to India
to star in a Bollywood movie only to learn that the producer only wants
one of them!
We sat down
with the three actresses recently in Beverly Hills.
AGW: What
was it like riding the big elephant?
Adrienne:
We're not going to lie. It was scary at first. Definitely it's not something
I would ever do if it was not a part of this movie, but it actually gave
me an opportunity to do something that I probably would never do on a
normal basis.
Sabrina: Actually
the elephant Ramu lays on her belly. She was 73 years old and super, super
big. We still had to take a ladder to get up into the basket, and then
from there she puts her front legs straight. So you're on this roller
coaster with no tracks and she brings up her other legs.
 Kiely:
And you're all good once she stands up.
Sabrina: But
not really because she walks and we're trying to lip sync and trying to
wave and trying to look kind of pretty.
AGW: There
are some huge production numbers in this like the one outside for "Cheetah
Love". What was shooting that like?
Kiely: It
was actually our last dance sequence that we did, and we were super nervous
about it, being as it was the opening of our movie and we wanted it to
be huge. We looked out and saw like the extras screaming, and they had
all these cameras and the lights are flashing.
Sabrina: The
steps were kind of scary to go down because they're not measured, you
know, completely the same. So sometimes they're this tall (indicating),
and then they're this tall.
Adrienne:
I had some great time just trying to walk!
AGW: What
was the best part of being in India?
Sabrina: I
think the best part is that we were there together. This is our third
movie. We've also done two tours, and over time, our friendship is such
a huge stronghold that when you get to travel the world together with
your two best friends, it's just incredible.
Adrienne:
We got to see Mumbai which was an amazing experience. That actually was
the first place we ever went to, and it's like the third noisiest city
in the world. It was so awesome to see how they live, to go shopping with
Fatima (their choreographer). We were shopping for bangles, the gold,
the gorgeous fabrics. I have tons of bangles. We love the Indian music.
We came back and still to this day if we're getting ready for a show,
we're dancing to Indian music.
 Sabrina:
There was one palace where you see the elephant come out, and then we
were in Dharampur where we actually got to stay in a prince's palace.
One of my favorite musical pieces in this is "Dance Me If You Can,"
and we were filming that at the Monsoon Palace, which is on top of this
huge hill and by the time we got out of hair and makeup, the sun was rising.
You could see all of Udaipur, and it was so amazing. I just was like,
"I'm in India. I am in India." It was so awesome and everywhere
we shot was just incredibly gorgeous.
Kiely: [My
friends say] "Why did they make all the outfits so colorful?"
I'm, like, "No, no, no. That's what it's like." You see women
just walking down the street like in teal head to toe. Orange, head to
toe. It all matches, and that was really cool, just being able to walk
the streets and kind of feel like you live there. We didn't feel like
visitors after a while. We were like "Hey, Bertha the cow, nice to
see you again".
Adrienne:
We named the cows.
AGW: The choreography
seems different and harder than what we usually see you do. How difficult
was it dancing in those costumes?
Sabrina: I
think Fatima did an amazing job taking what you normally see the Cheetah
Girls do and just completely just put it through the roof. Mona [costume
designer] had us do probably six costume fittings because we had to make
sure that we could dance in it. We had to be able to, like, move it around.
It takes a long time to get into it and the material is extremely heavy.
Kiely: We
were just trying to make sure our headpieces didn't come off.
Adrienne:
We had heels on when we first had the idea of doing this. It started with
heels. We ended up barefoot. We thought we'd take it in like the locals
and go for the barefoot dancing.
Sabrina: There
is a nice progression. When we first start the movie, it's the same fiery
hip-hop style that the Cheetahs are used to doing. And then, as it gets
along throughout the movie and then finally at the finale, you see just
this transformation and how we really embraced the Indian culture expressively
through our music and dance.
AGW: You guys
were doing your Disney Channel series and movies before the "High
School Musical" and "Hannah Montana" crazes. Do you feel
like young pioneers?
 Adrienne:
I just think we're so proud. Looking at all the other things that have
come out since us, we're just so proud of Miley and the success that she's
had, so proud of "High School Musical." We actually have considered
ourselves, like, the guinea pigs. We were actually the first musical and
soundtrack the Disney Channel ever did for a made-for-TV movie. So, to
see what has come from this and see the movement that we have kind of
started, It's very, very exciting for us, and we can't wait to see where
it continues to go.
AGW: There
is kind of a theme of competition among the girls since only one can be
in the Bollywood movie. Can you talk about that?
Kiely: The
movie is actually not so much about competition as it is the three of
us facing the inevitable change that comes with getting older and facing
something that we are slightly unprepared for. When the movie begins,
we're just out of our senior year of high school. We're going to college.
We don't really know what the future holds for us. Can we stay together
when we're going off to different schools and our lives taking us in different
directions? So I think the movie is more centered around that. There is
the element of competition because we're vying for the same movie role,
but I think it more has to do with us just kind of going our separate
ways and realizing that we don't have to walk the same path to be friends
and to keep the Cheetah dream alive.
AGW: Sabrina,
you were on "Dancing with the Stars" and kind of branching out
so real life is reflecting this film. You are doing new things, right?
Sabrina: Well,
I have a book coming out October 8th called "Princess of Gossip,"
and it's just basically about a young girl who kind of gets pulled from
the Midwest out to the West Coast. And she comes to L.A. and she thinks,
as soon as you get into L.A. you start seeing all the famous people. And
she basically ends up reverting to the Internet because she's not finding
any friends in school, and she then makes an information site for people
to get information on young stars but it spins out of control, and she
just learns that talking about people in a negative way can have a really
big backlash. So I'm really excited. I never thought I'd have an opportunity
to do something like that.
Pictures courtesy
of and Copyright The Disney Channel, 2008
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