Look who's dancing with Hrithik!

Source: HT

Hiren Kotwani

Mumbai,  April 27, 2006

Her latest starring role in matching dance steps with Hrithik Roshan and Isha Sharvani is pleased with the results of the Hide N Seek campaign. ""Afsar Zaidi, who manages my work, told me about the ad with Hrithik. Knowing that he's such a fantastic actor and a fabulous dancer, I was like wow!... and readily agreed,"" says the trained dancer who debuted with Kisna.

Hrithik and Isha rehearsed four hours a day before they faced the camera. ""It was a lot of hard work, the movements, the timings — we had to be completely synchronised. Since it's a club scene, I'm dressed in trendy yet classy outfits... the stylist was chosen by the agency. Having done Kisna and a Vatika ad, where again my look was very Indian, the Hide N Seek commercial was a good opportunity to break away from that image." For contemporary dancer Isha, dancing in stilettos was a new experience. "I'm so used to dancing barefoot that during the shoot I was afraid of missing a step and spraining my ankle or hurting myself.

"That would have forced me out of action for about three months. With a couple of films already on the floors and a few interesting ones in the pipeline, I couldn't risk that. But all's well that ends well," she says.

Admitting to be "a low-profile person," Isha adds that she has just wrapped up the shooting of Shyam Bajaj's next venture Rocky, opposite Zayed Khan, un der the direction of Suresh Krishna. While that goes into post production, "I'll be shooting for Ashwini Chaudhary's Good Boy Bad Boy, a campus comedy for Mukta Arts."

In the meanwhile, Isha will also have a release in Ram Gopal Varma's Darwaza Bandh Rakho, helmed by Chekravarthy. She describes it as "an interesting black comedy with a treatment you've never seen before."

A couple of other films are in the offing, too, she says. We'll have to wait to hear about those.

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Hrithik’s moves have brand value
Source: HT
Date: April 26,2006
By: Udita Jhunjhunwala

The super hero dances to commercial tunes

Hrithik Roshan’s unreal, wave-like dance moves are creating waves of their own after his latest commer cial for Hide N Seek biscuits hit television screens recently. In fact, actress Isha Sharvani, who is also a highly trained professional dancer, seems to be struggling to keep up with Hrithik. For those wondering who is responsible for giving Hrithik those fluid moves, well, no local dance director can claim credit. The steps are courtesy UK-based Flexi.

“We didn’t want a filmi look for the dance as the brand positioning is young, aspirational and cool. The idea was to highlight that aspect of the biscuit that makes you want to dance,” explains brand manager Shalin Desai. Flexi was selected by Vijay Lalwani and Samir Chonkar of Everest Brand Solutions, the agency behind the ‘Tasty Itna Ki Dil Aa Jaye’ ad. Roshan, Isha and Flexi rehearsed the dance steps for four days before shooting.

Vishal-Shekhar are credited with the background music and the costumes are a combination of designs by Anna Singh and Narendra Kumar Ahmed. “We wanted the whole ad to have a very contemporary look and feel, hence it is also set in a club,” says Vijay Lalwani, whose team had earlier worked on the ‘Anti-Marie Bureau’ campaign featuring Kajol.

Why Hrithik Roshan and Isha Sharvani for this campaign? “We wanted greater connect with our audience and Hrithik’s personality, his clean image and versatility make him the right choice as a youth icon,” says Desai.

The ad was originally meant to be directed by Shamin Desai, but Vishal Mangalorekar of At Infinity was later brought in. Sources say that the agency and client were not happy with Shamin’s work and reworked the ad with the new team. “He did not work out for us,” Shalin Desai says.

With the release of Krrish around the corner (June), it seems that Hrithik is set to be a superbrand and a superhero.