Deboo choreographed an escape sequence in Raavan

'Mani had a different vision and suggested that we stylise the escape sequence,' Astad Deboo explains.

When one sees dance maestro Astad Deboos name on the credit rolls of Raavan,its natural to presume that he has choreographed one of the songs in the film. However,this time around,director Mani Ratnam had something else in mind. The veteran filmmaker had Deboo instead direct Aishwarya Rai Bachchans escape sequence at the waterfall in Kerala with the track Behene De in the background,a first for the renowned performer too.

When I came on board,I too was under the impression that I would be choreographing a song. In fact,I had begun rehearsals keeping that in mind. But Mani had a different vision and suggested that we stylise the escape sequence, Deboo explains. It was,however,cinematographer Santosh Sivan who,having worked with Deboo in the past in M F Husains Meenaxi and Vishal Bharadwajs Omkara,suggested his name to Ratnam.

Deboo went a week before the shoot in order to choreograph and rehearse for the sequence. The sequence was a bit tricky because of the waterfall and the sharp drop in the cliff, he says. He came back impressed with Aishwaryas professionalism. She had to shoot the sequence twice,once for the Hindi version with Abhishek (Bachchan) and then with Vikram for the Tamil version. Both the boys,he added,bring in different energies into the sequence. Itll be interesting to watch both the versions.

The renowned contemporary dancer,Deboo,was in Delhi recently for a meeting with the organisers of the Commonwealth Games that take place later this year. He is likely to choreograph and maybe even perform for the opening ceremony of the games. He is open to doing more work in films. Bharadwaj has approached Deboo for his next film Saat Khoon Maaf and would like to work with him again.

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