'Besharam Rang': Bollywood choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant shares experience working with Deepika Padukone
The acclaimed choreographer has worked on many hit songs in Bollywood
'Besharam Rang', a track from the upcoming movie 'Pathaan' went viral as soon as it was released. The song has been lauded for the chemistry between stars Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan and its groovy moves.
The choreoraphy for the song was by Vaibhavi Merchant, who is well known for her trend-setting steps in many hit numbers. In a recent interview, Merchant opened up about working with Deepika on 'Besharam Rang'.
The song released on Monday was composed by Vishal-Sheykhar with lyrics by Kumaar, and the peppy track begins with Deepika in a golden monokini dancing. Both stars look extremely fit with Shah Rukh Khan sporting chiselled abs and a 'man-bun'.
Merchant is known to have worked with many of Bollywood's leading ladies including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in 'Kajra Re' from 'Bunty Aur Babli' and Katrina Kaif in 'Kamli' from 'Dhoom 3.
She shared the experience of doing her first song with Deepika and how she made it special with the choreography.
Talking about the experience, Merchant said, "In my body of work, I have probably consciously made an effort to ensure that the female leads are always presented very aesthetically. For instance, with Ash (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) in Kajra Re, I made it a point to kind of enhance the expressions in the way she did her adaakari. In Kamli with Katrina again, I kept in my what Katrina would look great doing."
She added, "One must always study the actor you're choreographing for because it doesn't matter if the movement looks great on me or my assistants, but it must look fantastic on the actor."
The choreographer continued, "Strangely, I've never been able to choreograph something for Deepika until Besharam Rang. So, this is my first song with Deepika and I knew I had to do something really special for this one. It was very endearing for me to see her approach me and say finally we get to work with each other and I said Deepika I truly want to make this very special for you because this is our first and I don't want to shoot a better song than this for you in future."
Merchant continued, "I wanted to go all out to present her in a way that she has never been presented before. I must give it to Shaleena Nathani for the costumes. Deepika has a great rapport with her and I was pleasantly surprised to see her being so comfortable in her own skin. She owns the song and she is looking gorgeous in every frame."
She added, "Deepika put in a lot of hard work to look the way she is looking in Besharam Rang. She had an entire crew - dietitian, her physical trainer and the stunning costumes by Shaleena. I was mighty impressed with the way she just approached all the costumes she's like, yeah, she's cool to wear this, she's cool to wear that. So, I think that really triggered a certain style in which this song should be shot. Because I was like, I can't make her wear those costumes and make her do steps in a way that we usually shoot songs."
'Besharam Rang' was shot across Spain's gorgeous coastal towns Mallorca, Cadiz and Jerez. As for the movie, Shah Rukh Khan portrays a gun-toting spy with a license to kill in the upcoming action-thriller film, which is set to release on January 25, 2023, in three languages.
SRK and Deepika are one of the biggest on-screen pairings in Bollywood given their epic blockbusters like 'Om Shanti Om', 'Chennai Express' and 'Happy New Year'.