Arun Mode and Chetan Kadam, two Mumbai-based choreographers, who have been working with the legendary composer AR Rahman for more than 10 years now, are living the dream. The dream of experimentation, the challenges that make you soar and feel the music of the maestro through the ages — from Roja to Jai Ho to the most recent Nenjame Nenjame.
The duo, who were the choreographers for the winners of the third season of Nach Baliye, have earlier worked with eminent personalities including Hrithik Roshan and Ganesh Hegde. “We met in school and have known each other for more than three decades now,” says Arun. They were just friends who wanted to dance.
Fast forward to today, the duo has choreographed many live shows for Rahman with the first collaboration being in 2010 for an IPL concert where they choreographed around 250 dancers. And now that Rahman is set to perform in Chennai and Coimbatore on August 12 and 20 respectively, we ask the choreographers what the audience can look forward to, apart from Rahman, that is. “We are doing a lot of variations because of the kind of music Rahman has created. Every kind of possible genre will be covered in the concert and that pushed us to explore various dance forms; be it hip-hop, Bollywood, contemporary, aerial acts and more. People can expect to see a lot of styles; some very modern state-of-the-art technology is being used for some songs along with classical music,” Arun informs us.
The rehearsals for the show have been going on for the last 20 days. The show will feature more than 40 dancers, and that was a challenge for the choreographers. They had to conduct rehearsals both indoors and outdoors depending on the acts. And then came the costumes! With so many dancers, there were nearly 700 costumes and the dancers had to change them within a matter of minutes, making it all the more difficult. “We had to rehearse both indoors and outdoors due to space constraints. Some acts like a human pyramid at the show, which is nearly 20 ft tall, had to be practised outside,” adds Arun.
Talking more about the challenges a choreographer faces navigating such a large number of performers, Chetan says, “As a choreographer, every project is challenging. We have to transcend somebody else’s vision through our movements. We’re working with so many dancers. Each individual is a different person. There are a lot of times when there are injuries and you don’t know what to do. In that case, we have to rework the entire choreographed sequence to make it look like nothing has happened because, like they say, ‘the show must go on’.”
When the duo met Rahman for the first time, it was a fanboy moment for them both as they grew up listening to his songs like many of the ’90s kids. Recalling the moment, Chetan says, “We were surprised by the aura that Rahman carries. He is not like a typical celeb. He’s very soft-spoken and humble. And he knows exactly what he wants. Rahman expects a certain level of commitment and professionalism from everybody who’s working with him.”
When working for the composer, the biggest inspiration for Arun and Chetan is his music. “There are so many elements and so many layers of different instruments and the way he uses them. He’s a maestro. He’s constantly involved in the creative process; he wants to know what is happening. Like there is this song Hosanna (Vinnaithandi Varuvaya) that we were choreographing for him. Rahman came up to us and said, ‘Hosanna means God; it’s got a spiritual element. So, try to bring in that kind of feel to your choreography’,” says Arun, adding, “That’s the kind of dedication and detail that Rahman expects.”