Dance party

Choreographer Ahmed Khan brought together 100 dancers and experimented with new techniques of underwater dance moves with Armaan Jain and Deeksha in Khalifa from Lekar Hum Deewana Dil

Written by Priya Adivarekar

Mumbai | June 6, 2014 01:00 AM IST

3 min read

Deeksha and Armaan grooved to Khalifa Khalifa with great enthusiasm. The actors underwent four days of rehearsals to perfect their moves and the underwater dance sequence

When you have got a youth anthem composed by A.R.Rahman, you know the video is ought to be a notch above the usual full of zest, youth songs that one usually gets to see. That’s exactly what crossed choreographer Ahmed Khan’s mind when he heard the first scratch of Khalifa from the Armaan Jain-Deeksha-starrer Lekar Hum Deewana Dil. “With Rahman composing and rendering the track, the song itself is big. So, we couldn’t have done a plain college song or something on the streets. This required something totally out of the box,” stated Khan. The song was shot over a period of four days at the Poonawalla bungalow situated at Madh Island and Magnet Mall near Bhandup, both in Mumbai. While the bungalow premises were used for the house party sequence, the flash mob part was shot inside the mall and the basement shots were taken in the parking lot of the mall. The team, comprising more than 100 dancers and the actors, rehearsed over a period of four days before the actual date of the shoot. Khan mentioned that while Deeksha is a fantastic dancer, Jain has added his own sweet charm to the moves, which makes it look unique. “It was the flash mob sequence shot in a mall that required some practice, as everyone had to get the right sync. But otherwise, we wanted both Armaan and Deeksha to do things in their own natural style,” said Khan.

Water, water everywhere

The biggest challenge for Khan was to show an underwater dance sequence. A swimming pool at a hotel was booked for the rehearsal process of this sequence, which required the dancers and actors work on the breathing technique, which would help them when they are underwater. “Everyone has seen the regular underwater dance moves where people do a wave or just hi while moving around. We wanted to experiment so we filled the pool with tennis balls and when the camera is underwater, one can’t see anything on the top, so it adds a colourful blanket. Also, we made them do crazy stuff like BMXing, skateboarding, dance moves on the chair among other things. We tried to create a completely new underwater concept,” mentioned Khan.

Zooming ahead

There are a few shots where bikers can be seen performing stunts, which apart from the popular wheelies, also includes boomerangs and 360 among others. Two bike riders were called in from Delhi. “They had to perform some of these stunts in between a group of dancers, Armaan and Deeksha, during an ongoing shot. Their part hasn’t been cut-paste. It was difficult to shoot this part, thanks to its risk factor and to match the timing of the bikers, dancers and Armaan’s lip sync,” stated Khan, adding that the bikers would zip at 100 kmph from about 200 metres away and then do a skid or some other stunt. “Thankfully, it all went well and the shot came out perfectly,” quipped Khan.

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