SRK moves from Dard-e-Disco to Bharatnatyam

Cut-throat competition in the Indian film industry has led the biggies of Bollywood to get on with some experimentation. With Salman Khan stunning the audience with the remakes of southern hits we have Shah Rukh Khan adding the southern flavour to his movie.

‘Ra.One’ is Badshah Khan’s dream production and he is doing everything possible to make it the biggest hit of the century. After the high profile special effects for the film, next on block is SRK himself performing Bharatnatyam in the movie.

Choreographed by Ganesh Hegde the song is SRK’ first attempt with this classical dance form. “This is for the first time in his career that Shah Rukh will perform Bharatnatyam. He always wanted to try Bharatnatyam and ‘Ra.One’ offered the perfect opportunity,” says Ganesh.

The song features the lead pair, Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor dance on the beats of Bharatnatyam. And this is for the first time that international singer Akon will be singing in Hindi. Giving an insight about the track Ganesh says, “The name of the song is ‘Chamak Chalo’ and is sung in Hindi by Akon. The song will put on show the true chemistry between the couple, SRK and Kareena in the southern style. It is a specialised song and I have made it in a distinctive way. Only after you watch, will you be able to know the magnitude.”

Bharatnatyam is a classical dance form and a very tough one too but it seems there is nothing to stop King Khan once he makes up his mind. “Normally Shah Rukh does not rehearse much for any dance number but for this Bharatnatyam song he was practicing for around four days continuously and managed to give the perfect expressions of Bharatnatya. Even Kareena practiced a lot and she too gave the best expressions. With Shah Rukh at his best and Kareena looking graceful in the traditional Bharatnatyam outfit, the song has simply turned out awesome,” says the delighted choreographer.

Rumours were rife that SRK had first approached his so-called best friend Farah Khan to do the dance number but Farah refused due to some verbal dispute. We asked Ganesh if he knows about the happening, expressing a strong denial the choreographer says, “As per my knowledge this is not true at all. Shah Rukh had directly approached me first to do the song. He had even asked me to be present during the making of the music and I was with them throughout the process of music production. ”

Speaking about the trust level that he and SRK share Ganesh says, “All big projects of SRK are choreographed by me, be it IPL or ‘Don’. He trusts me a lot and prefers me over others as I have always delivered him the best. I believe in doing fewer projects but of good quality. I am not among those choreographers who get work done from their assistants,” concludes Ganesh.

From the best visual effects to Bharatnatyam now, ‘Ra. One’ is turning out to be an extraordinary dream for SRK. Only time will tell how hard the film will hit the ready contemporaries.

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