Renowned choreographer Vijay Ganguly speaks with The Pioneer over a lighthearted phone chat about his inadvertent journey into choreography. Ganguly is currently the talk of the town for choreographing the funky motions of songs like Taras and Ishq Vishk Rebound!
Tejal Sinha
Bollywood is certainly back to its phase of bringing some groovy songs that don’t fail to make your lazy energy turn into an energetic mood. We are just not saying it for the sake of it. Look at these songs: Akhiyaan Gulaab, Taras, or Ishq Vishq Pyaar Vyaar.
Not only do these tracks sound bang-up, but so do the moves too! So, today, we have with us the showman of the these trending songs, Vijay Ganguly himself, as he takes us through his accidental choreography journey, choreographing the moves of these chartbuster songs, and the due credits for the choreographers in the industry.
Initially, quitting dancing for him to get into direction, he began his journey in the industry by assisting Anurag Basu. However, since the film was taking longer to shoot and release, Vijay, with his dancing background, got into working on the musical for the film.
And guess what? It was he who choreographed the Galti Se Mistake song from Jagga Jasoos, and it was all by chance. As the track came out, he also won the Filmfare Award and people began taking him seriously in terms of choreography. An ecstatic Vijay, speaking of his overwhelming journey shares, “I wanted to work with a list of directors: Anurag Basu, Imtiaz Ali, and Anand Rai. I wanted to work with them as an assistant and gain some experience, but everything got fast-tracked, and I became the choreographer of songs from their film.”
Born into a filmy family, his father, Anil Ganguly, was one of the most renowned directors of the past and also holds a national award in his name. So he and his sister, whom we popularly know as ‘Anupama’ aka Rupali Ganguly, played on the sets. “It was always like films were a home for us. And so, I knew this was something I’d want to do. During my teen years, when we generally figured out what we’d want to do, it was then that dancing happened to me. I joined Shamiak Dawar’s classes, and it was he who discovered I could dance.”
From being a student there to also being a teacher later on, he has had a close association with Shamiak. He has assisted him on sets for films like Taare Zameen Par, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Thereafter, he went on to share a close association with Ranbir Kapoor, Vidya Balan and Namashi Chakraborty!
“If Galti Si Mistake hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be doing choreography in films,” he says, of Galti Si Mistake as his breakthrough. “People wouldn’t have known how much I could contribute to films as much as I do now. The experience that I’ve learned from my father for so many years makes me happy that I can bring it out and that people are now appreciating it. It’s all because of Galti Se Mistake! A lot of credit also goes to Anurag Basu for having that trust in me.”
Vijay has also choreographed and made the ‘Shahenshah of Bollywood’ groove on his steps for Bunty Aur Bubli. He goes on to recall how Shamiak had to leave for an emergency and how the project landed with him. There was a moment when he, in fact, went blank in front of Big B.
Talking of the recent tracks that have been viral all over social media, especially that of Taras, he enthuses, “What happens is that when you are choreographing a song, you don’t know if it is going to work or not. There are times when, even after a lot of hard work, a song doesn’t work out. For example, there was this song, Main Parwana, that I had done from Pippa. When we did that song, we knew we had done a good job, and we were very happy with the final product. However, due to the delay in the film and other aspects, people just noticed the song and it didn’t get the love and respect we thought of.”
In fact, he also recalls how people on social media have been comparing Akhiyaan Gulab and Soni Soni. “It makes me happy because, you know, there are so many songs in the industry and so many songs look similar. However, nobody notices it. When we were shooting for Soni Soni, we knew it was very similar to Akhiyaan Gulaab.”
He further reveals going through the videos of Ishq Vishk (2003) to take reference for the songs in the upcoming film. “Initially, we had to find the original track because the track is named something else (Mujhpe Har Haseena) on YouTube. Shahid had done the hook-step so well. I made a mistake a while ago for the song Poster Lagwado from Lukka Chuppi. The song was recreated and we changed the hook-step, and people started to criticise saying the previous hook-step that had Akshay Kumar was better. It’s then that we realised that something cannot be touched, is iconic and has to be the way it is.”
On the other hand, Taras was certainly the most challenging song for him. He revealed that there wasn’t much preparation time. “We were supposed to shoot a promo song. I got a call and was informed that we were going to shoot this song in 4 days. While I was pretty worried about how we could shoot the song in just 4 days, the director was sure about how and what to do. He sent me a song and asked me to choreograph for it. As we choreographed the song and thought of the set-up, at night, he called me and informed me that we had to change the song. So Taras came the next morning; we choreographed it; the next day, Sharvari danced on it; and then we shot for it. It was that cut-to-cut.”
As we head towards the end of this fun chitter-chatter, he further lists out his upcoming projects, which include Stree 2, Shava, a song with Aamir Khan, Naadani with Ibrahim Ali Khan, and Khushi Kapoor, among many more. On a concluding note, he also recalls how, over the years, choreographers have now been getting their due credits, unlike before. And it’s all because of Bosco, he says, that things have now been so much better for them!
