National Award-winning choreographer and filmmaker Remo DSouza says dance has evolved in the Hindi film industry because of the enthusiasm of the new generation actors.
Remo has been a part of the choreography world since two decades.
"I think this is the golden time for choreographers like me because of the young generation of actors who are also dance enthusiasts. These actors are open to experimenting with new choreography. If you think that a change has come in Bollywood dance, it is only because we have got the opportunity to work with these enthusiasts," Remo told IANS in an interview.
He has choreographed for songs like "Badtameez Dil", "Sunn Saathiya", "Pinga" and "Deewani Mastani".
As a filmmaker, he made India's first 3D dance film "ABCD - AnyBody Can Dance", in which he choreographed all the songs.
Recalling his early days, Remo said: "Earlier in the 1990s, if I asked any lead actor to do contemporary, hip-hop or any fusion dance form, none of them were ready to try them out. So as a choreographer, I had to create something that suited them instead of something new or out-of-the-box. Now, all these actors... Varun Dhawan, Tiger Shroff, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Shraddha Kapoor are open to experiment.
"So, as a choreographer, I actually explore my creativity now."
Asked if it is difficult to make a superstar do a difficult step, Remo said that every choreographer should keep a film star's personality in mind while working with him or her.
"As a trained dancer, I can do a difficult step very easily because I have been practising dance all my life. Film stars are not born dancers and not all of them are trained also. But they have a charismatic personality. As a dance director when I am composing something, I should be keeping the strength of my dancer in mind... In this case, the film star," explained the dance master.
Remo started working in Bollywood in 1995. But his visibility rose when he became a judge for dance reality show "Dance India Dance" in 2009.
Since then, he has appeared as a mentor and judge in several dance reality shows and currently he is the judge of "Dance Plus", which airs on StarPlus.
He believes the show not only introduces new dance forms to the audience, but also educates the mass audience about dance in the form of infotainment.
"I think one of the reasons why our show still holds relevance and stands out from the rest of the dance reality show is its content. Unless we are introducing some of the unexplored, lesser-known dance forms in these shows, we will not be able to educate the common audience with our world of dance.
"In a dance show, instead of other emotions that mostly get highlighted in other reality shows, my idea is to celebrate dance," added Remo.
