Astad Deboo who passed away on December 10, had little to do with Bollywood. He did choreograph for M F Husain in Meenaxi A Tale Of two Cities. But that was hardly Bollywood. More mainstream was Mani Ratnam’s Raavan. The contemporary and modern Indian classical dancer was lured into the deep jungles of Athirappilly, Kerala, by filmmaker Mani Ratnam to teach the lovely Aishwarya Rai Bachchan some unconventional steps.
Aishwarya who was shooting for Raavan with her husband Abhishek Bachchan, was required to do a climactic dance sequence for which the Padma Shri fusion dance choreographer was specially called in. The actress, of course, is as graceful as can be when it comes to dancing on screen and choreographers from Saroj Khan to Shiamak Davar have raved about her professionalism when it comes to taking instruction.
The same was true of Astad Deboo. This was his first experiment with Bollywood, though he did agree to lend his supple creativity to M F Husain’s Meenaxi before. For Raavan Astad chose a tandav of passion, retribution and redemption for Aishwarya, because Mani wanted a fusion of kathak, ballet and contemporary dance. The steps were intricate and new and Ash had to dance barefeet on slippery and unsafe ground. Moreover, she had to do the steps twice over and in quick succession, first with Abhishek for the Hindi version and then with Vikram for the Tamil version.
It isn’t easy being a screen queen.