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Making of Jodhaa Akbar Dance I (plus pics)
To get the dance moves in his period epic Jodhaa Akbar right, director Ashutosh Gowarikar roped in as many as four choreographers -- Raju Khan, Ash Kumar, Chinni Prakash and Rekha Prakash.
Chinni Prakash has been a part of the film industry for years. He also trained his niece Vaibhavi Merchant, who gave us the moves in Kajra Re, among many other filmi songs.
Chinni Prakash has worked in films like Saajan, Khuda Gawah, Thakshak and Tere Naam. Over to him as he takes us behind the scenes of Jodhaa Akbar.
I have choreographed the song, Azeem-O-Shaan Shahenshah.
I knew Ashu (Gowarikar) was doing a period drama because I had met him a year before the shooting started to wish him luck. We did not talk about the film's choreography then. About three or four months after that meeting, he asked me to come down to Karjat (about 100 km from Mumbai), where the shooting was on. So I went there with my son.
'Ashu wanted to do the song like the Olympic opening ceremony'
In Karjat, Ashu first asked me to listen to the song. I thought it was fabulous!
Ashu had an idea of how he would choreograph it, with 300 dancers. But I felt that it should have at least 1,000 dancers.
Ashu wanted to do the song like the Olympic opening ceremony, where they come in large numbers and dance in front of a gathering. Here, they were to dance in front of Akbar. Ashu also said that there should be groups of dancers, coming from different parts of North India.
We had to keep in mind that the film is based on an era 300 to 400 years ago. So we had to visualise how they would dance; what their dance steps would be like.
For this, I had to do a lot of research. I saw a lot of black and white movies and leafed through books on the Mughals. I researched on their clothes, postures, and a lot more.
