‘Ms. Marvel’: The Cast on the Most Challenging Scene — the Bollywood Wedding Dance

“The world is going to be gobsmacked that Marvel has a Bollywood dance sequence. It's unreal.”

What’s a Pakistani wedding without a huge dance number? Episode 3 of Marvel Studios Ms. Marvel invites viewers to Aamir Khan and Tyesha Hillman’s wedding where they’ll be plenty of food, fun, family, and a choreographed number for the newlywed couple. Featuring members from the whole family, much to Aamir and Tyesha’s surprise, it’s a happy, joyous moment that the whole cast was eager to embrace — even though some of them were more excited about it than others.

“I loved it. I've been a lifelong dancer. I loved it, every minute of it,” Zenobia Shroff, who plays matriarch Muneeba Khan, tells Marvel.com. “I was like, I’m going to dance the heck out of it.”

However, Shroff’s dancer partner, Mohan Kapoor, who plays Yusuf Khan was a little hesitant. Even though, as Shroff continues, “we've always had each other's back,” Kapoor was nervous about taking on the challenge.

“It was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life,” he explains. “I come from the land of Bollywood. I'm a part of Bollywood. But in my 30-year career, I have never done a Bollywood dance. I love it, I respect it…but I've never danced.”

It was a lot for Kapoor to take in, considering he was still “barely getting over the excitement of ‘I'm in Hollywood. I'm in Marvel!’ And then suddenly, they say, OK, you're going to dance to a Bollywood song.” While the actor is well versed in improving and performing in front of thousands of audience members, when it comes to dancing, he gasps, “Scarier.”

Shroff is quick to reassure her partner, “You were so good. You practiced so hard. He was working so hard. He calls me and is like, so I've been practicing. He worked so hard at it, and you did a really good job.”

However, one cast member that’s singled out is Matt Lintz, who plays Bruno. Everyone brought their A-game to the dance rehearsal and the final filming, but as Saagar Shaikh, who plays newlywed Aamir, gently puts it, “Matt can't dance. But Matt did a great job.”

With a laugh, Lintz knows he can’t dance and is prepared to defend himself against the dancing seen on-screen — besides, not being able to dance is completely in line with Bruno’s character.

“They have us go to rehearsal for the dance number,” Lintz recalls, and when he showed up, he assumed, “I'll be in the back. It'll be fine. I'll learn a few things.” However, the choreographers for the number had different ideas and told him, “You’re actually, you're going to have your own solo dance.”

Even though he might not be as good as the other dancers, Lintz knows that’s just the Bruno way. “I mean, he's quirky. He's a nerd. He can't dance. He's good with math. I don't think he can go on Dancing with the Stars. He could win a couple of math competitions and I think it really represents Bruno's character.”

And besides, good or bad dancers, everyone had a blast filming the wedding scenes. As Yasmeen Fletcher, who plays Kamala’s best friend Nakia, adds, “I think going into it, we were nervous because we didn't know how difficult it was going to be, we didn't know what I was walking into. We all loosened up and had a great time like we always do on set. But it felt like a real wedding when we were filming it… it feels so real.”

It felt so real, it reminded Shaikh of his own recent wedding.

“It's so typical in a Pakistani wedding that the bride doesn't know that the groom is about to come up and dance,” Shaikh explains. “She should always know because it happens every time! At every wedding! But for some reason, it's always a major surprise. That's exactly what we did in the show where Tyesha didn't know that Aamir was going to get up and do his dance. It was so fun. Everybody was just having so much fun.”

So though challenging, and at times scary, the dance number was a highlight for the cast, and they can’t wait to see the reception to it. As Kapoor sums it up, “The world is going to be gobsmacked that Marvel has a Bollywood dance sequence. It's unreal.”