** I liked that Demon in AGNI VARSHA!


PRABHU DEVA CAMEO 'ABRA KA DABRA'

By Aira

In The News


He's known as India's answer to Michael Jackson. And Prabhu Deva still idolizes the moon-walking maestro despite all those charges of child abuse against him. "People became his fans because of his dancing and not (due to) his character," he points out and quickly slips into flashback about his close encounter with Jackson during the latter's visit to the country seven years ago. "I met him like a fan," recalls this southern swinger. "And he hugged me when people told him that I am the Indian Michael Jackson!" Prabhu Deva arrived in Mumbai to perform the title track of Dheeraj Kumar's 'Abra Ka Dabra'. It's one of his rare cameos in Bollywood.


"When I heard the film is in 3-D," he explains, "I want to be a part of the film because it would be something different." The director of the film Dheeraj Kumar says, "Prabhu Deva is very talented and in this children film of mine I have a lot of actors doing guest appearances. And therefore I thought of calling this dancing maestro here to shoot." Last year, Prabhu Deva also choreographed Hrithik Roshan for Farhan Akhtar's 'Lakshya'. "Hrithik is a very good dancer," he says. "Again, I wanted to be a part of this film because of the director. But I had too much tension just thinking about the expectations of making Hrithik dance." He's a modest man who brushes aside any compliment about his physical flexibility and rubber band elasticity. "Nowadays everybody can do my kind of dancing," he says dismissively."

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People used to be amazed by me because I was the first to do it." Prabhu Deva has been dancing from the age of 11. "Dancing like any sport is a physical activity," he analyses. "Earlier, dancing was all about movements for me. But these days I also use my brain to make it more creative and satisfying." For a man who's found his niche as a choreographer and an actor down south, Bollywood hardly tempts Prabhu Deva. "I get a lot of choreography offers which I cant take up because of my work in Tamil and Telegu films," he says. "And here everybody is a big star so why would they wait for my dates." But these days Prabhu Deva is all set to make that big leap behind the camera. "I am going to direct a Telegu film," he says.

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"Will it be a musical? But, of course every Indian film is a musical." Like most nice south Indian boys, Prabhu Deva hasn't really tried to explore Mumbai during his past few visits. "All I do is eat a couple of Natural's ice-cream or drink Shiv Sagar's milkshakes and eat bhutta on the beach." We certainly hope that this is not the last visit of Prabhu Deva and sooner or later he will be able to see the entire Mumbai and go to eat at a few more places in this tinsel town. Though he's concentrating on his direction these days but dancing will continue to be his first love.