Open your Instagram account, and chances are your feed is filled with reels of Akshaye Khanna’s entry sequence in Dhurandhar. Since the Aditya Dhar-directed actioner released on December 5, the actor has been unanimously praised for his intense performance as Rehman Dakait, standing out in the all-star cast of Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, and Arjun Rampal. Now, his entry song, FA9LA, created by Bahraini hip-hop star Flipperachi, has gone viral. And here’s the kicker — it was an impromptu dance by Khanna.
Vijay Ganguly, who choreographed the number, tells mid-day, “The song is a celebration of Akshaye’s character being crowned as the Sher-E-Baloch. Originally, he was supposed to enter, walk through the dancers, and sit on the throne. Seeing the scene’s mood and the dancers’ performance, the fantastic actor that Akshaye is, he said he would dance a bit when he walks in. None of us knew what he was going to do. Akshaye entered the scene, took it from that point, and spontaneously performed.”
Vijay Ganguly
Even as he looks back on it, the choreographer is amazed that FA9LA was shot in barely two hours in Ladakh. For that, he credits Khanna’s precision. “It was the first shot we took that day, and it was perfect. Then we did a close-up, and we were done. Akshaye knows exactly what he has to do in a scene and plays with it,” shares Ganguly.
Shooting in the high altitude of Ladakh is tricky, dancing more so. The choreographer shares that Khanna was suffering from high-altitude sickness during filming. “Akshaye would carry a small oxygen cylinder with him. When we were shooting this song, his oxygen level had dropped. So, after every shot, he would put the oxygen mask on. He did the sequence unflinchingly, and then went home.”
Before Dhurandhar, Ganguly worked on Chhaava that featured the actor as Aurangzeb. Even though their interaction was limited on the historical drama’s set, it was enough for the choreographer to understand the actor’s undivided attention to his craft. “Akshaye didn’t have any dancing to do in Chhaava. When he is on set, there is not much interaction outside of work. He is completely immersed in his character, thinking and trying to see what more he can do to enhance his scene.”
Social media users are drawing parallels between Akshaye Khanna’s ‘FA9LA’, and Bobby Deol’s entry song ‘Jamal Kudu’ in ‘Animal’