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Hooray for Bollywood! Here Come the Cheetahs

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 21, 2008

BEVERLY HILLS - Before Hannah Montana, "High School Musical" and the Jonas Brothers, the biggest thing on the Disney Channel was the Cheetah Girls.

They were four fun-loving singer/dancers who were in their late teens when they starred in two popular movies for the network in 2003 and 2005.

Now three of them are back for a third film "The Cheetah Girls: One World," a colorful musical salute to India's Bollywood musicals.

When they were cast in the first Cheetah Girls movie, Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams already were performing with the R&B-hip-hop group 3LW. Sabrina Bryan was a singer, actress and dancer who had appeared on TV shows such as "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "Grounded for Life.

Raven-Symone was well-known from "The Cosby Show" and Disney's "That's So Raven"). She isn't back for the third film which debuts at 8 Friday night She decided to pass and concentrate on other projects.

Based on the series of popular children's books by Deborah Gregory, the films are about the bonding of young women of various racial backgrounds who dream of musical stardom. "We were the guinea pigs for the Disney Channel; our movies were the first for the network," says Sabrina.

Filmed on location in Rajasthan, India, the new film has the Cheetah Girls getting involved in romance and some jealousy against a backdrop of colorful outfits, impressive scenery and even a few elephants.

The film serves as the launching pad for a CD and a fall concert tour (closest stop in Orlando on Oct. 26).

The three Cheetah's talked about their Bollywood experience during the Television Critics Association's press tour in Beverly Hills in July.

QUESTION: What have The Cheetah Girls been doing between the second film and this new one?

SABRINA: This last year has been definitely a growing year as far as us doing things outside of the Cheetah Girls ... I was doing 'Dancing with the Stars,' Kiely was filming a movie 'House Bunny' that's coming out [Friday, Aug. 22.] It's actually coming out the same day as our movie. ... And Adrienne's working on a solo album, a Spanish-English solo album.

I have a book coming out Oct. 8 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 thinks, you know, as soon as you get into L.A. you start seeing all the famous people. And it kind of spins out of control, and she just learns that talking about people in a negative way can have a
really big backlash.

Q: What was it like to ride on an 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. I was like, 'I can do it.'

SABRINA: Actually, the elephant lays on her belly. Even still being on her belly, she (the elephant) was 73 years old. She was super, super big, and 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, you're just completely like this -- you're at an angle like this, holding on, and she brings up her other legs.

KIELY: And you're all good once she stands up.

SABRINA: Not really because she walks.

KIELY: Like bomb, bomb, bomb.

SABRINA: We're trying to lip sync and trying to wave and trying to look kind of pretty.

KIELY: And we were like, 'Yes, well, we're trying to concentrate and not die.'

Q: There's some great large production numbers, and there's one, it had water in the background, and it was multiple steps you were up, and it just looked huge. What is it like to be the center of one of large, large pieces?

KIELY: That was 'Cheetah Love,' actually, and 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 actually looked out and saw like the extras screaming, and they had all these cameras and the lights are flashing. We actually really did feel like we were performing live. So that was a great feeling for us. I know we really enjoyed doing 'Cheetah Love.'

SABRINA: The steps were kind of scary to go down because they're not measured, you know, and not completely the same.

ADRIENNE: I had some great times just trying to walk.

Q: Tell me what the best part of this experience was? What did you get to see while you were there that was really fabulous, incredible? What did you get to eat? What are some of the experiences that you took home and will always remember?

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 the times our friendship is -- it's such a huge stronghold that, like, when you get to travel the world together with your two best friends, it's just incredible.
We got a chance to really take this movie and step it up like four notches with the dancing, with the musical numbers in general, getting, you know, great cast members that we got to get to know. I just think everything about this movie has improved from the last one. We loved doing the last one. We loved being a part of it, but it was just such an awesome experience to know that, as we're getting older, our work is getting better and better.

Q: Can you talk about some of the actual places that you got to see, the Taj Majal and things like that.

ADRIENNE: We didn't get to see the Taj Majal. That's our one big regret. 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. We were shopping for bangles, the gold, gorgeous fabrics.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.

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