MUMBAI: Film editor Aarif Sheikh, who won the National Award for Samay – When Time Strikes, is making his debut as a director with Let’s Dance.

The movie is slated to release on 19 June, 2009.

"Although dancing is the DNA of the film, I was very sure that my story needed to be solid. It needed to hold on its own. Although I was working with mostly new artists, I never had any trouble extracting performances, as all my actors were perceptive," says Sheikh.

The movie introduces Gayatri Patel, who plays a simple but determined dance teacher.

"Gayatri is simply fab in dance and that’s why we call her the dancing tornado. I couldn’t have had a better dancer than her for a film like this," he says.

Produced by Dr Arvind Patel, the film co-stars Ajay Chaudhary, Aqib Afzaal, Sugandha Garg, Asif Basra, Abhaas Yadav, Nikuunj Padaya, Paras Arora and Anjan Srivastav.

Sheikh has also edited films like Makdee, Maqbool, Taxi No. 9211, Parzania and The Blue Umbrella