By Shruthika Pochampally
Staff Writer

For the past eight years, Heritage Night has taken place in the Coppell High School Commons, and every year without doubt, hundreds of students show up with high expectations in store for the night.

This year, spectators were able to receive a glimpse of various Indian, Hungarian, Pakistani and other cultures. From Bollywood film dances to ethnic classical Indian songs, Heritage Night on Feb. 21 provided an amalgam of genres and styles throughout the event.

Highlights of the night included a stunning Indian dance performed by sophomores Manu Garikipati and Manali Gore. Another exciting performance was a pop Hindi medley performed by seniors Abishek Ramani, Anish Indhupuru and Dhruv Kohli. The crowd loved this performance so much the group of performers had to come back onstage for a second round of energetic dancing.

Senior Sahithi Narayandas has performed at Heritage Night for three years.

“My favorite part [of Heritage Night] is expressing the immense passion that I have always had for Bollywood dance and bringing smiles on the audience’s faces,” Narayandas said.

Current University of Texas sophomore and former Junior World Affairs Council president Priya Gupta, a 2012 CHS graduate, said Heritage Night has evolved into something spectacular. The roots of Heritage Night, however, were humble. Satvika Ananth, who first began the tradition of Heritage Night at CHS with Sonali Kalvala, were freshmen in when the idea came to them in 2006.

“We did [Heritage Night] together as a part of another organization not at CHS, and we decided to do it as a way to bring people of different cultures together and bring awareness about different cultures and heritages at CHS,” Anand said.

“The first thing we did was get an advisor, Rita Bauer, who could help us; she was the human geography teacher at the time,” Anand said.

The process, though meticulous, paid off in the end.

“We talked to the principal at the time and told him what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it and he was very supportive of our project,” Anand said. “We pulled people together and really drew the support of our friends and got them to help us bring different cultures together, as our friends were very diverse anyways. That way we could get some input on other cultures, and it just grew from there.”

This year’s Heritage Night, emceed by senior Imran Murtuza and senior JWAC council member Jasmine Chemplanikal, had a successful turnout, with over 200 people present to watch the showcase. Along with Coppell students, parents, teachers and many spectators not resident to Coppell were also present to support their friends performing.

“I didn’t expect a lot of people to be there but I was surprised to see all my friends come and watch,” Air Crew sophomore Zubyr Saeed said.

Over the years Heritage Night has become a great event to raise money for various foundations and bring the diverse Coppell community together.

“When I was there, it was just this one night event. One thing that I know has changed a lot is they now push people to explore cultures outside of their own, whereas the first year or two, I would do India, and my Pakistani friend would do Pakistan, and a Chinese friend would do China,” Anand said. “We’ve kind of encouraged people to relay a culture to people at Heritage Night that isn’t their own culture, and make it more of a learning process for the people involved, as well as the people who attended.”

Together, the JWAC council members throughout the years have created Heritage Night into a successful and well-anticipated event throughout the years.

“Seeing how people continue to come, I was genuinely shocked that people still care enough to do that,” Anand said. “It’s good to see that [Heritage Night] continues to be something [people] are interested in and find that it’s worth their time to spend the night learning about cultures other than their own.”