'Vashmalle', the first song from Thugs Of Hindostan released yesterday, has been appreciated by fans of Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan. The two actors will be seen together on the big screen for the first time, and seemed happy to shake a leg.
The actors and crew shared their experience of making the song in a behind-the-scenes video released today.
“'Vashmalle' is a dream song for me, it is like me who always wanted to work with Amitabh Bachchan, now [I] finally get to do a song with him,” Khan says gleefully.
For director Vijay Krishna Acharya, it was important that the song fitted well in the period. Thugs Of Hindostan is a fictional story set in pre-Independence India.
“As it happens in music, a song is a recreation of an artiste too. It should fit into the particular period and in the film’s world,” says Acharya.
The music of 'Vashmalle' is scored by the duo of Ajay and Atul. The word 'vashmalle' means celebration. “You want the song to appeal to the people of today, but you must give them the feeling of being in a certain time," underlines Khan.
Meanwhile, Bachchan was full of praise for the music composers. “Because it is a period film, I’m happy that the music directors were not just able to bring in the right kind of tunes, that we have heard in the 1940 and 1950s, but also be able to bring in instrumentation which is representative of that period. It was designed in a manner which I thought was quite brilliant,” says Bachchan.
Ajay Gogavale revealed how they used different kind of dhol - Kutchi, Orissa-style, Marathi-style.
The most fascinating thing about the song was how Acharya and his production designer Sumit Basu recreated a Thai cave in India.
“It was a song which was to be done at night. Now, if were to shoot there, we don't know how many of us would return alive. There was water, rocks and the place was said to have some 500 snakes. It would have been a problem to shoot there," says Acharya.
Given the problems at hand, it was decided that production designer Basu would recreate the Thai location in India. It took the effort of 200 people to construct this cave set.
The song has been choreographed by Prabhu Deva. It was the first time that the ace choreographer filmmaker was directing a song involving Bachchan and Khan. At 76, though, it was a challenge for Bachchan to dance like Prabhu Deva.
“Prabhu Deva is an amazing personality. His dance movements and the way he performs is astonishing. And then he makes you do it. The kind of steps he does, it's impossible to recreate them,” said Bachchan.
The brief given to the superstars was simple. “What Prabhu told us was that more than the steps, I should enjoy myself. I figured that that is my one chance to dance with Mr Bachchan. I’m going to have the time of my life," says Khan.
Bachchan, who naturally struggled with the steps, thought of just going with the flow.
"We were struggling hard with the steps and we said let's play the song and just freak out. And everybody did what they wanted to do. I don’t know whether it was filmed, I’d love to see it [footage] because we went mad,” says Bachchan.
"Everybody just spontaneously went in and started dancing," concludes the director.
Watch the making of 'Vashmalle' below: