From Choreography To Direction

Since the era of Bollywood films started there was no such profession called choreography. The directors themselves would direct the songs according to the script or the lyrics of the song. Later choreography was recognized and thus became a well-defined career. Choreography and direction always goes hand in hand and thus probably a lot of choreographers have been taking up film direction projects.

The latest in this list is none other than Shaimak Davar. As a choreographer Shaimak made his debut with Yash Raj banner’s ‘Dil Toh Pagal Hai’ and now all set to direct his first film which will be called ‘A Slumdog Millionaire Goes Dancing’. Oh no! it’s not a sequel to Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionnaire’. Shaimak always wanted to make a film which is based on dancing and thus his film will revolve around a bunch of slum children who are trained to participate in a dance competition.

Earlier also some of the choreographers went behind the camera to experiment their direction skills. When we think of a Choreographer turned Director, the first name which comes to our mind is the one who has choreographed more than 100 songs in over 80 hindi films, Farah Khan. Farah Khan started her career as a choreographer with the film ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander’. She made her debut as a director with the film ‘Main Hoon Naa’ starring Shahrukh Khan which was well praised by the bollywood critics. She later directed ‘Om Shanti Om’ again with Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone.

Ahmed Khan is the one who brought the grace in Urmila Matondkar’s dance moves in the film Rangeela. Then films like Satya, Ishq Vishk and Salaam Namaste and Kaminey showed his versatility as a Choreographer. He started his career as a director with the film ‘Lakeer’ and later he directed ‘Fool N Final’ but both the film did not gain much popularity at the box-office.

Prabhu Deva, the one who is known as rubber body because of his dance moves and has choreographer for more than 100 movies including south and bollywood films. His dance moves emerged him as an actor as well. With the film ‘Wanted’ starring Salman Khan and Ayesha Takia Azmi Prabhu Deva emerged as a director. The film worked really well at the box-office leaving ‘Dil Bole Hadippa’ behind which released on the same day.

From Big B to Hrithik Roshan, Ganesh Acharya has made everyone dance on his tunes. Ganesh Acharya may be obese but has tremendous energy and sets the dance floor on fire with his amazing moves. He started his career as a Choreographer in the year 1992. With ‘Swami’ Ganesh emerged as a Director. He later directed ‘Money Hai Toh Honey Hai’ but both the film did not do great business at the box-office

Ramesh Gopi who is more popular is Remo D’Souza started his career as a Choreographer by assisting choreographer Ahmed Khan. He started choreographing independently with Sonu Nigam’s album ‘Deewana’. With ‘Kaante’ Remo became more popular as a choreographer. With Bengali film ‘Lal Paharer Katha’ he made his debut as a director. He is all set to make his debut in Bollywood with the film titled as ‘Faltu’

So these are some of the choreographers who went behind the camera to direct a film but only a few of them proved themselves to be good directors as well