‘Embarrassed’ Priyanka Chopra was yelled at by the choreographer on set; he said she ‘drove me nuts’

“I was filming with Raju Khan (son of legendary choreographer Saroj Khan) in South Africa and missing my marks. He got so upset with me that he threw the mic down, saying, ‘You might come from a pageant, but learn how to dance before you become an actress.’ He just walked away and I was so embarrassed,” she recalled.

ALSO READ | Rs 1500 cr on 3 films: With Toxic, Jana Nayagan, has KVN Productions bitten off more than it can chew?

However, she added that despite the early friction, she’s “great friends” with Raju now. The song in question was a romantic track “Aayega Maza Ab Barsaat Ka” alongside the lead actor, Akshay Kumar, from Andaaz. Priyanka couldn’t get the steps right even in the 40th take, which is when Raju asked her to learn dancing. Thankfully, since Akshay’s wife Twinkle Khanna was pregnant at the time, the shoot was halted.

Priyanka Chopra took Kathak classes after this incident

That allowed Priyanka to return to India and join Pandit Veeru Krishnan’s Kathak classes. Besides her pageant friend Lara Dutta, the classes were also attended by Katrina Kaif, who was also preparing for a career in Bollywood. “Priyanka was like the star in our Kathak class. This was the same time when I was investing myself into learning Hindi that I put myself into Kathak training,” Katrina told Mid-Day in a 2024 interview.

Even before making her Hindi film debut, Priyanka struggled with matching steps with Thalapathy Vijay in her debut movie, Abdul Majith’s 2002 Tamil action thriller Thamizhan. “In dance, Priyanka was okay, but she couldn’t initially match steps with Vijay. She would practice with the choreographer from morning to evening. Then she started enjoying it,” Priyanka’s mother Madhu Chopra told Filmgyan in a 2024 interview.

In her defense, Priyanka didn’t want to enter films, but once she got the offer, her mother convinced her to say yes because she was an “obedient child”. However, after learning Kathak, Priyanka felt more at ease while shooting songs, much to the surprise of Raju, who choreographer her again for the song “Aaja Aaja” in Suneel Darshan’s 2005 romantic drama Barsaat.

When Raju Khan said Priyanka Chopra ‘drove me nuts’

“Priyanka did have a set of limitations prior to this film, I’d say. Not in this film (Barsaat). There was a lot of difference in her performance between Andaaz and Barsaat. She was also new then. That was her first film. She was more into walking down the ramp. That’s the maximum they’d seen in life. But to bring them to commercial cinema, and do the latkas and jhatkas, she was taken aback a bit. She tried her best,” Raju Khan told Wild Films India in an old interview.

“She drove me nuts in that film. But four years later, I did other Indian ethnic songs with her, and she’s so good. She took me by surprise. She’s much more confident. That’s because she’s spent so much more time here. I don’t think anyone takes classes before entering the industry. This is where they learn and mature, and their performances get better. And that’s how they grow,” he added. Raju went on to choreograph Priyanka in songs like “Chori Chori Chupke Chupke” alongside Hrithik Roshan in Rakesh Roshan’s 2006 superhero movie Krrish and several songs in Ashutosh Gowariker’s 2009 romantic comedy What’s Your Raashee?.

Priyanka Chopra’s return to Indian cinema

After Priyanka moved to Hollywood in 2016, she didn’t get the chance to do any major dance songs for the next 10 years, which is when she put up her condition of including a high-octane dance number in her next Indian film, SS Rajamouli’s fantasy epic Varanasi. “I haven’t done an Indian film in like six years (her last one was Shonali Bose’s 2019 family drama The Sky Is Pink). So when SS Rajamouli called me and he was like, ‘You know this female character is really cool and you have to do it,’ I was like, ‘I have one request. Can you make me dance? Please? Because I haven’t danced for so long,'” Priyanka told Screen Rant recently.

Also Read — Akashdeep Saigal, 51, defends Kyunki 2 return as grandson of Smriti Irani, 50; fans say ‘beta dadi se bada’

“I didn’t think the steps would turn out to be what they turned out to be,” said Priyanka, admitting she wasn’t expecting the choreography to be at the level of the Oscar-winning dance song “Naatu Naatu” from Rajamouli’s previous film RRR (2022), which featured Ram Charan and Jr NTR. Her Varanasi co-star Mahesh Babu, who wasn’t entirely pleased with her request, told her during the rehearsals, “Don’t complain now — you asked for this.”