Some of the most well-known choreographers, including Remo D’Souza, Bosco Martis, Vijay Ganguly, Kruti Mahesh, and Ganesh Acharya, recently met to discuss how dance directors in the Hindi cinema business are not given enough recognition for their efforts. During the chat, they discussed instances in which producers neglected to acknowledge them for their efforts to popular songs such as ‘Badtameez Dil’ and ‘What Jumka?’ since their names were left off of the YouTube description area. They also complained about Prem Rakshit, the choreographer of RRR’s highly successful song ‘Naatu Naatu’, not receiving any Oscar nominations.
Bosco Martis opened up about the same when he was talking on a podcast with Nritya Shakti, “The job of choreographers is to take a lot of responsibility for a film’s promotion. For instance, every teaser will have a shot of a song or only shots of the song. So, they specialise in giving a film that glory.” Not just that he even said that Remo didn’t get enough credit for ‘Badtameez Dil’ on YouTube. “Your name is not there in the description of ‘Badtameez Dil’,” he said.
Ganesh Acharya added to the issue by revealing that the YouTube description of the song ‘What Jhumka?’ from the film ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ also failed to mention him. Bosco went on to explain that, despite receiving a national prize for his choreography in the song ‘Senorita’ from the film ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’, his name is not featured in the credits.
During the conversation, the choreographers said that despite decades of struggle for recognition, they are still not given credit on platforms such as YouTube. Shakti Mohan, the discussion’s moderator, pointed out that because there isn’t a list of choreographers and the songs they’ve made, it might be tough to figure out who created what.
The choreographers revealed how dissatisfied they were when Prem Rakshit, their colleague who choreographed the Oscar-winning song ‘Naatu Naatu’, wasn’t given greater attention at the Oscars, despite the awards ceremony containing a performance of the song.
Adding onto this Bosco Martis said, “I was shocked… ‘Naatu Naatu’ the song was celebrated at the Oscars. So, I was like why was the choreographer not celebrated? That song was performed at the Oscars, they performed those steps that he created.”
Remo D’Souza said, “And no actor, no director, no music composer nobody mentioned his name.”
Bosco Martis added, “When you get that platform, you make sure that you are visible, that you are celebrated because you have put in a lot of effort and hard work, and not only India, the world danced to that song.”
When ‘Naatu Naatu’ won the Best Song Oscar in 2023, Prem Rakshit was not there, but the film’s composer, MM Keeravani, did acknowledge him in his speech. He said, “This award belong to in order of priority to my brother and the film’s director SS Rajamouli for his vision and constant trust. In order of priority…Mr Prem Rakshit, who animated the song and without him this wouldn’t have happened.”
