Are you also obsessed with viral CGI scenes from 'The Ba***ds of Bollywood' featuring Bobby Deol and Mona Singh? There are high chances are it triggered a wave of nostalgia. While many were wondering if the song is a reshoot, let us tell you that this is top-notch CGI, where Mona Singh’s face replaced the OG dancer Bhanu Khan’s.
But who is Bhanu Khan and why is she iconic? Let us break it down for you!
Do you remember the OG scene from Bobby Deol’s ‘Gupt’ in 1997? The glamorous bartender cum dancer dancing alongside Bobby was Bhanu Khan.
In the 1990s, when Bollywood was dominated by divas like Raveena Tandon, Karisma Kapoor, and Urmila Matondkar, there was also a parallel group of stars like Bhanu, who were more than mere dancers.
Millennials will remember her best from Tere Ishq Mein Naachenge in Raja Hindustani (1996), or Gutur Gutur from Dalaal (1993).
Yet, for all her screen presence, Bhanu Khan never transitioned into mainstream stardom.
In an interview with Times Now, the OG choreographer of the song Chinni Prakash spoke about her experience working with Bhanu and where she is today.
Chinni Prakash told Zoom, “Even to make the song look good, you need someone very presentable. When you keep a shot, there should be a beautiful face. She was a very good-looking girl, a very lean and good dancer. She used to move nicely and had a craze. Actors, directors, everyone wanted her in the frame. For us also, she was one of the main girls who did so many other songs."
She further added, “Bhanu was an assistant to my wife Rekha. She was one of the main leads for me too, whenever I kept two dancers in the front and two in the back.”
Talking about casting Bhanu in the song, the choreographer revealed, “"here was no casting of background dancers at that time. They used to just work with me. I used to fly all my dancer girls and boys from Chennai. There were no Bombay dancers at that time. We had a troupe of 100 people. The choreographer decided everything."
However, Chinni has no clue where Bhanu is now. “We don't know where she is now. Every 10 years, we keep changing dancers. They all move out and do their own work. Some get married, some settle down. Some leave India and shift to Dubai, America... They all get busy. I don't have any connection with them now,” he revealed in the same interview.
How many Bhanu Khan songs do you remember?