Source: Desi Hits
Date: April 23, 2010
As Engendered's Dance Festival, "South Asian Dance That Explores The Diversities of Masculinities and Femininities," goes down this weekend in New York, DesiHits! sat down with two of the participants, Flexy Studio choreographers Flexy Stu and Loren L, who worked with Hrithik Roshan on his new movie "Kites." Check out our exclusive interview here.
DH!: Tell us a bit about your background; how did you become a choreographer?
Loren: I was involved with Flexy from Flexy Studio, we met in LA, I'm American and Flexy is from London, so we're a mixture of the U.K. and USA, but both of us got our dance foundation in California. We studied with the same gurus in LA, that's how we started working together. Flexy Studio was formed in 2007. The first song we did was for the movie "Varanam Aayiram" and the song was "Adiye Kollutha" by A.R. Rahman. Flexy also shot a commercial for Vodafone, Hrithik Roshan spotted it and that's when he invited him to do the commercial for "Hide & Seek."
DH!: So that's how you got into Bollywood movies and working with Bollywood actors, which Bollywood stars have you worked with?
Loren L: Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut, Sameera Reddy, and many Telugu actors.
DH! Who's the best dancer in Bollywood that you have worked with?
Loren L and Flexy: Hrithik can make any move look good, he is Flexy's best student.
DH! Which is the most fun movie you have worked on?
Loren L: The number "Hosanna" by AR Rahman was shot in southern India with beautiful surroundings like churches. And "Kites." We're very happy with the way the trailer for "Fire" looks. "Kites" was like a marathon; it was very hard when we were doing it but we were very happy with the result. It took a lot of energy and time getting Kangana and Hrithik ready to perform the type of movement we wanted. It's one thing to teach steps and another to get down to personifying characters. The feeling of portraying a character is different in America. We spent a lot of time and work on movement and character to make it look authentic. We are very happy with it, it wasn't easy but we worked hard and so did Hrithik and Kangana. We took many takes in order to get each movement right, the energy, we wanted to build. What was difficult with "Fire" was the fact that Flexy and I are dancing in the song so both of us were choreographers, directors and dancers, we were involved in most of it so it was more of a challenge, we had to run back to monitor it and then get in front of the camera again. It was really multitasking.
DH!: Can you give us some behind-the-scenes scoop about Hrithik?
Loren L and Flexy: All the rumors are true; Hrithik is a perfectionist and a workaholic; he would call us late at night to come down from out hotel, get into his car and meet up to listen to the track he did. He's really excited about the music and he's really striving to be authentic. A lot of actors in Bollywood try to take short cuts; he's real the whole time.