One hell of a day!!

Hey Guys!!

 

All my friends and family from the states have been incessantly asking me about my experience while shooting Let's Dance, so despite the fact that I'm neck deep in figuring out media plans, hoarding plans, and music release logistics... here we go.

 

The first promo that has been released is the Song Promo of the Let's Dance title track. The film opens with this number, but this was actually the third song we shot.

 

It's been shot in Kandivili on the streets in the scorching sun. Now let me tell you that is quite a task.  Longinus Fernandes (of Slumdog Millionaire - "Jai Ho" and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na - "Pappu Can't Dance" fame) choreographed it.

 

I think when we watch films from afar; we always think that the actor or actress has rehearsed for days prior to a touch dance sequence - in my case we rehearsed for max two days before the shoot- sometimes for only two hours a day each.

 

For Let's Dance in particular I rehearsed alone two days before shoot, but one day prior to shoot I was shooting for another part of the film, so I rushed to rehearsal at 8 pm after shooting the whole day and then rehearsed with all the dancers for the sequence.

The actual shooting of the street portion of this song was hot (as in sweltering scorching, can't breathe hot), but breezy as we had at least rehearsed twice.

 

And Longy (as we fondly call Longinus) was extremely particular about me going back to the Vanity Van after each take so I wouldn't tire myself out. We shot the street portions for two days. 

 

After a break of one day we shot the Cabaret and Qawwali portions of the song.  That turned out to be a catastrophic day.  I arrived on set and my director and I discovered that the outfit my dress designer had made for me paled in comparison to the lavish set which had been put up.  In fact, it even paled in comparison to what the dancers were wearing.  Immediate chaos prevailed- it was 8 am and no stores were open and no tailor could make an outfit in a record time of 2 hours.  So we stalled shooting.  At eleven o clock- Longy took me to a store and we picked up the outfit.  By the time the outfit was chosen and fitted it was 1 o'clock! After makeup and hair it was three! So you can imagine how short on time we were! I went on set - Longy taught me the moves and we wrapped up this section at 8 pm.  So when you see me in the blue dress with the cabaret set up as a backdrop- that's the part this all happened in!

 

I then rushed to the van to change into the qawwali outfit- I had been told there would be no dancing in this sequence- so I was pretty calm as my stylist and make up artist transformed me into a dancer from the era of the moguls.  At 10 pm I stepped onto a beautiful qawwali set to discover that I actually was going to dance and I must learn the sequence in 10 min. as we had an 8 am shoot the next day. I put my brain into super alert mode and focused to get all the moves in record time.

 

When we finally packed up it was 1 am and there was a collective sigh from the entire unit!  One hell of a day!!

 

The final portion in the Let's Dance Song has been shot in a club.  The choreography for this part has been done by Rajeev Goswami (Vaibhavi Merchant's ex-assistant).  We shot this portion actually 2 months before the rest of the song and it culminates into the Let's Dance song beautifully!

 

So there's the shooting of the title track of 'Let's Dance'!! Hope you all enjoy it.

 Luv,

Gayatri