PRESS CONFERENCE: ABCD2
It was an evening packed with glamour, charm, rhythm and entertainment when the team members from ABCD2 (Anybody can Dance) came for a session with the media at PVR Director’s Cut, Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj. Present at the event were superstars Shraddha Kapoor and Varun Dhawan along with Raghav Juyal, the slow motion king, and Amrita Pandey, Disney India.
The film is directed by Remo D’souza, produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur and Walt Disney Pictures and has Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor in lead roles with Prabhu Deva and Raghav Juyal. Nevertheless, the whole crew of dancers that were present in the prequel (ABCD) will be seen once again; only bigger and better.
Varun Dhawan shared his experience from the movie. Talking about how it was matching steps with India’s finest dancers, he said, “I am sharing this stage with a fantastic dancer right now and it can’t be more true to say it was a task, for both me and Shraddha, to match steps with the brilliance of Prabhu Deva and all the amazing dancers. But I will say that while we are not at the level of dance they have in their veins; under their guidance, we’ve managed to reach a level of dancing that has not been touched before. There are dance forms in this film that have never been done before in any bollywood film. Be it Raghav, Punit, Dharmesh or the others, we’ve been trained and grilled by them and both of us feel that we are at a higher benchmark than where we were when we started out although nowhere near the skills and prowess the dancers have.”
It’s a given that with dancing, comes a multitude of injuries, because that is what defines the journey. Speaking of that, Shraddha said, “I want to underline the word ‘attempt’ because I have attempted to live up to the level of dance that was expected out of me. True, there were a lot of injuries, more so, because I’m dancing full on for the first time ever in a film which has so many stunning dancers. I feel lucky to not have faced any serious wound because I was almost on the verge of undergoing a surgery had it gone wrong. As a matter of fact, it was not just me, all of us, somewhere or the other, were faced either bruises or strains or muscle pulls. Even Varun had an injury during the song ‘Bezubaan’ and he is literally dancing with a support around his neck in that song. So there’s literally been a lot of ‘blood and sweat’ to make the film come out the way all of us wanted it to.”
ABCD was a huge success and worked so well even without any bollywood star attached to it. But the onus of the sequel lies mostly on Varun and Shraddha and their contribution to how this one will turn out to be. To this Varun said, “There is definitely a whole lot of responsibility and pressure on us as actors especially after the previous one went such a big hit. Be it the economical side, audience perception wise or any other aspect, I believe that there exists one star that was in both the films and that star is dance. Dance holds a huge power in nation, be it the gaiety in the birth of child, winning a cricket match or merely passing exams, we Indians always dance to express our happiness. Remo sir and Walt Disney have very rightly and innovatively come up with bringing a film out of our culture in a more revolutionized way.”
Talking about the same, Shraddha said, “I can’t agree more with Varun when he said that dance is the superstar of the film and after that comes all the astonishing dancers. I and Varun consider ourselves very lucky to have found a place in the film because as actors, we usually don’t get chances of learning almost 20 different dance forms like crumping, house, lyrical and the like so I feel very honoured as an actor to be a part of the film.”
The standard of dancing has grown by leaps and bounds in the country. Speaking on that, Raghav Juyal said, “A lot of value has now been attached to dance as an art more than it was before. Parents motivate their kids to pursue dance these days and it makes me so happy when I see this revolution taking place. Even our film is based on a true story of the Fictitious Dance Group and their struggles to reach the top. So I always want parents to encourage their kids to pursue any art of their choice. I always say ‘fame is a devil and art is an angel; fame will come and go but your art will always stay with you’.
We asked Amrita Pandey, marketing strategist of the film, about the promotional techniques they did so far. She said, “The film has Varun, Shraddha, Remo and the boys so our job became much easier. There was very little we had to do because there were fans of the stars, fans of ABCD and Remo and the dancers so just to begin with, it was not a very tough job. However, we have tried to put out the songs in which all of them have done a wonderful job. Secondly, we have used their posters in dance formations and they have appealed to the youth quite well. The best and most exciting thing is that the best two songs have not yet been released and kept for the theatres. So, it’s going to be amazing for everyone when they watch the film in 3D and I’m sure they’ll go completely crazy after watching it.”
The film releases this Friday and the whole team awaits the day with a lot of expectations and belief that it will shine out perfectly and touch the string this films is intended to.
Picture Credits: Hitaishi Chaudhary, OneWorldNews
