Ranju Verghese is an ace, chorographer and has done great body of work and choreographed many actors, he has recently choreographed songs in the film TOTAL DHAMAAL and will soon be making the actors groove on their feet in Ajay Devgn’s TANAJI.
In conversation with Ranju as she spills about his journey in Bollywood and more
Excerpts from the interview
Which songs have you choreographed in TOTAL DHAMAAL?
I have shot 2 songs for the film. One is called 'Paisa yeh paisa' and other one is called 'Speaker Phat Jaaye'. On my 1st meeting when I got to know with 8 actors in a song I was as happy as I was stressed about it. I couldn't figure out where to begin with. It was a challenging song and I and my team had to give our all to see to it that nothing goes wrong in d preplanning. But it was pleasantly surprising how smooth the shoot went because all the actors were amazingly co-operative and passionate. Also actually they were shooting all together for d 1st time for this film. So they all were super excited about this grand union. It was like a party behind d monitor when they sat there cracking on their one liner, mostly coming from Ritiesh sir and Anil sir. Post that the 2nd song had total 12 actors and a lesser day to shoot. It was very scary as a thought but that went off amazingly well too. Me and my team had a great time working with the stars we always wished to work with. And the best part was that we got them altogether.
Any different form of choreography that you enjoy?
The songs of TOTAL DHAMAAL were the biggest songs of my career. And hence I saw to it that I didn't fall short anywhere in my efforts to make them look grand and unique. So for the 1st song Paisa Paisa, firstly we worked in detail on individual set up right from the color palettes, costumes, props. We also planned some technically interesting shots to add more fun to the choreography. Like there is this one seamless shot where we see all actors do the choreography individually as we pull out from one to another. Then we had this bag snatching sequence where we kind of connected all their set ups together. Hook step was a huge task cause fistly this song has the longest ever hook line that repeats twice each time. Secondly the actors I had to choreograph for had a mix of personalities, who would be dancing on this longest hook line in one frame. So cracking that one was a bit of a task. We had multiple options. Some were too tough for someone while too simple for others. So we finally squared down to the one that we see in the song.
How was your experience shooting with the multi starrer cast of Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor?
It was like a dream come true for my entire team. I have loved them since I knew what Bollywood is! Anil Sir walked in with a 100 meter aura of high energy and the whole set got infected. Madhuri ma'm… the entire crew fell silent when we were shooting her dance routine.. She was like a beautiful dream. Ajay sir is this peaceful, calm, and the most humble person I have ever met. It was not at all difficult to coordinate with anyone of them cause as they all were amazingly co-operative and considerate as well as the entire team was well in sync and on their toes and each one of them did a fantastic job.
What are your upcoming projects post the success of TOTAL DHAMAAL?
Post this one I have worked on some amazing films like TANAJI, THE UNSUNG WARRIOR, BYPASS ROAD, BODY, BLANK and a few more.
