Ahmed was scared of doing choreography for Rangeela: Ramu told me, ‘You are nobody’

Three decades may have passed, but when it comes to director and choreographer Ahmed Khan RangeelaHis voice still reflects the innocence of a 19-year-old who suddenly found himself choreographing one of the most era-defining films of Hindi cinema. What we now celebrate as iconic was born out of the sleepless nights at the time and the fear of a young boy trying to prove himself to the world and on his first big project.

Speaking exclusively to India Today on the film’s re-release, Ahmed recalled how ace choreographers Remo D’Souza, Longinus Fernandes and Baba Yadav were part of his crew, and that too without permission, leading to some cinematic drama during the shoot.

Ahmed recalled his struggle to find rhythm in his choreography for the film. He said he would spend sleepless nights trying to immerse himself in AR Rahman’s very ‘different’ film music. One day, he was sitting in his balcony at 2:30 in the night, listening to songs on his Walkman, when his mother came in.

“She became very concerned and told me that you don’t need to endure so much stress for work. She said, ‘You are so young, join your father in business, what does that mean?’ But I told him I needed to do this, I needed to pursue this,” he said.

But the decisive moment did not come from this conversation; It came from a collaboration with director Ram Gopal Varma. Ahmed shared that when he met the filmmaker, he admitted to being afraid of doing something wrong.

“He replied, ‘First of all, who are you? You are nobody. If anything goes wrong, people will blame me for taking you on. So you come out of that area with your ego. You are nobody who speaks this language. You just go out and work independently.’ Then my mind, my brain opened. I told myself, let’s make mistakes, but don’t let your fear take over. I’m going to break all the rules and go out. and just like that Rangeela It happened,” Ahmed said.

We also inspired them to share some of the behind-the-scenes things that keep them nostalgic and happy even after 30 years. Ahmed said that instead of a professional dance crew, he brought a group of college kids for the project because it needed fresh energy.

The filmmaker said, “I got my own group of students because we wanted to try something new with choreography. However, they did not have senior dance association membership. There were Remo D’Souza, Longinus Fernandes and Baba Yadav, all of whom are star choreographers now. Sometimes, the sets would be raided by the association, and I would whistle and signal them to run away.”

“And once the officers would leave, I would call them back. It was a lot of fun, and Ramu would laugh at our antics,” he adds.

On a final note, we asked him about his next directorial venture ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. Ahmed said, “We are absolutely on schedule. We have a huge cast, and it’s a big film, so it takes time. And we also have Baap, whose post-production is already done. Even that has four people (Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty and Jackie Shroff). Zee will decide its release date.”

Starring Urmila Matondkar, Aamir Khan and Jackie Shroff, Rangeela Re-released in theaters on 28 November.