Brett Sutton dances the Bhangra onstage at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne

Victoria’s chief health officer sent crowds wild when he broke into gyrating Bollywood dance moves on-stage at a Melbourne theatre.

Victoria’s chief health officer swapped meetings for dancing shoes when he busted out the moves at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.

Professor Brett Sutton was spotted onstage at the Palais Theatre on Saturday doing a traditional Indian folk dance called Bhangra with prominent actor Rithvik Dhanjani.

Two short clips were posted to social media of Professor Sutton dancing as the crowd cheered him on.

“I’m not going to take up much of your time but Brett and me (sic) were sharing the backstage and doing a little bit of Bhangra,” Mr Dhanjani said to the audience.

“And I’m not kidding, do you guys want to see what we were doing?”

Professor Sutton, dressed in a grey suit, hopped and dropped to the upbeat music.

Sutton doing the Bhangra. Picture: Indian Film Festival of Melbourne

The crowd went wild in response. Picture: Indian Film Festival of Melbourne

Professor Sutton cheerfully grinned as he hugged Mr Dhanjani at the end of the 20-second dance.

Festival Publicist Aisling Brady told the Herald Sun Prof Sutton was invited to the awards event as he was presented with an IFFM hero award to celebrate the work he did during the pandemic.

“He is really loved by the community,” she said.

“He also has a personal connection with India as he has travelled there a lot.”

Ms Brady said the dance happened organically after the awards host, Mr Dhanjani and Prof Sutton were mucking around backstage.

She also said Prof Sutton wore a face mask during the event, except for when he was onstage.

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne is Australia’s biggest annual celebration of films from India and the subcontinent.

It runs until August 20.