“Geeta Kapur was really strict with me during the shoot of Chaiyya Chaiyya”- Reveals Malaika Arora on India’s Best Dancer

MUMBAI: The much awaited dance reality show from Sony Entertainment Television – India’s Best Dancer promises to showcase the best talent from across the country. The soon to be aired show will be judged by Malaika Arora, Geeta Kapur and Terence Lewis. While we recently heard that Malaika and Terence go back a long way where Malaika learnt dancing from Terence, turns out that Malaika and Geeta also have a connection! Interestingly, during one the recently shot audition episode, Malaika shared an interesting anecdote from her first day of shoot for the song, Chaiyya Chaiyya. Malaika revealed that she was nervous and choreographer Geeta Kapoor’s strictness made her even more anxious! 

Sharing her experience Malaika said, “I was really scared as it was my first song, and also my first time on a film set. My lifestyle and upbringing was very different. I was never ever exposed to anything like this (film set) before. Doing the song for the first time in the presence of so many people, listening to (the director say) action, cut, sound, music… I was not used to it and to top it up, I met Geeta ma’am who was very strict. She was like a teacher which made me even more nervous, so I was more scared. (laughs)” 

Apparently Geeta was also under a lot of pressure! Since the song was entirely shot on a moving train in Ooty, there was only limited time at hand. The train had operating hours and the sequence was shot between one station to the other, post which the train had to come back and they would start shoot again. The entire song had to be covered within that distance and in limited time.  

Geeta Kapur further added, “My boss had given me a dictate to prepare Malaika well (laughs). She explained to me that this is not Malaika’s forte and we need to present her in a manner that makes this song iconic! I was working with a very clear vision. The song was made by AR Rahman, Shahrukh Khan was in the movie, Mani Ratnam directed it… so the pressure was anyway there (Laughs). Considering all of this, I had only one thought that by the time Malaika reaches Ooty, she has to be well prepared and ready. And she was! She probably just panicked for the first 5 secs on the train and then she was a pro! From the entire shoot, the tunnel part was the most difficult one. There were different things happening – the lights kept changing, the smoke effect had to happen on time and the movement of the train coming out of the tunnel accounting the lights had to be timed well… leading to the step of taveez bana ke pehnu tujhe…. Which couldn’t go wrong. I was just hoping that this go well. And honestly Malaika took all the pressure off me. Once we reached Ooty, I dint get the time to rehearse with her and Malaika was confident that she will rehearse herself and give the take.” 

On Terence’s request, all three judges danced to the tunes of Chaiya Chaiya reminiscing the iconic step. What a story and such nostalgia! The camaraderie between all three judges is quite visible and the audience will get to experience the same soon.  

Truly Malaika Arora and Geeta Kapur are pure examples of the show’s tagline, ‘Jab tak best nahi tab tak rest nahi’.