And today the queen is hanging mid-air.

On day five of her performance, while a 20,000-plus crowd pirouettes to her songs, she makes an aerial entry with her most popular number.

She had practised the move -- in a box hauled by a crane -- for almost half an hour before the show and had asked to be dropped amidst the audience. When she descended into the crowd, she was quickly whisked away by security guards back to the stage.

For over a decade, Pathak has been performing at dandiya nights in the city. She presents a mix of traditional Gujarati folk music with popular Indipop and Bollywood numbers.

Before the Mumbai police clamped a 10 pm deadline on dandiya events, she and her troupe, Ta-Thaiya, performed till the wee hours of the morning.

"It was such fun then. I used to come home at 6 in the morning and be back in the evening again," says Pathak with an impish smile.

Reportage: Archana Masih. Photographs: Jewella C Miranda