Vaibhavi Merchant Shares Experience Working With Deepika Padukone

MUMBAI, (ANI) – ‘Besharam Rang’, the first track from ‘Pathaan‘, raised the temperature as soon as it was released. The lady behind the song and many more such songs is ace choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant.

The song composed by Vishal-Sheykhar with lyrics by Kumaar, showcases the sizzling chemistry between Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone. Merchant, who is known to present the hottest versions of leading ladies on screen – Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in ‘Kajra Re’ from ‘Bunty Aur Babli’, Katrina Kaif in ‘Kamli’ from ‘Dhoom 3 ‘ and now to the scintillating Deepika ‘Besharam Rang.’

She said, “In my body of work, I have probably consciously made an effort to ensure that the female leads are always presented very aesthetically. For instance, with Ash in Kajra Re, I made it a point to kind of enhance the expressions in the way she did her adaakari. In Kamli with Katrina again, I kept in my what Katrina would look great doing.”

Vaibhavi added, “One must always study the actor you’re choreographing for because it doesn’t matter if the movement looks great on me or my assistants, but it must look fantastic on the actor.”

The choreographer continued, “Strangely, I’ve never been able to choreograph something for Deepika until Besharam Rang. So, this is my first song with Deepika, and I knew I had to do something really special for this one. It was very endearing for me to see her approach me and say finally we get to work with each other, and I said Deepika I truly want to make this very special for you because this is our first and I don’t want to shoot a better song than this for you in future.”

She went all out in making Deepika look the hottest heroine that India has ever seen on screen. “I wanted to go all out to present her in a way that she has never been presented before. I must give it to Shaleena Nathani for the costumes. Deepika has a great rapport with her, and I was pleasantly surprised to see her being so comfortable in her own skin. She owns the song, and she is looking gorgeous in every frame,” Vaibhavi said.

She added, “Deepika put in a lot of hard work to look the way she is looking in Besharam Rang. She had an entire crew – dietitian, her physical trainer, and the stunning costumes by Shaleena. I was mighty impressed with the way she just approached all the costumes she’s like, yeah, she’s cool to wear this, she’s cool to wear that. So, I think that really triggered a certain style in which this song should be shot. Because I was like, I can’t make her wear those costumes and make her do steps in a way that we usually shoot songs.”

‘Besharam Rang’ was shot in Spain’s coastal towns Mallorca, Cadiz, and Jerez. Shah Rukh Khan portrays a gun-toting spy with a license to kill in the upcoming action-thriller film, which is set to release on January 25, 2023, in three languages.

SRK and Deepika are one of the biggest on-screen pairings in the history of Indian cinema given their epic blockbusters like ‘Om Shanti Om’, ‘Chennai Express’ and ‘Happy New Year’.