Devi dances to Prabhu Deva's choreography

Devisriprasad is known for composing musical scores and songs in Tamil and Telugu films. His music has rocked the charts in many a film. Devi, as he is popularly known, sets the stage on fire when he comperes, sings and dances at audio releases. Energetic, full of life and electrifying, Devi pumps enough adrenalin and draws the audience into his musical ambit when he is on stage.

Now he is seen in a new avatar -- shaking a leg with Sameera Reddy in the Prabhu Deva directed Vedi, which also stars Vishal.  

Devi talks to Radhika Rajamani about how Prabhu Deva got him to dance in a song and what this new experience was like.

The initial steps

One day, Prabhu Deva Master called me and said he wanted to meet me. He came to the studio and told me he wanted me to do one song for his film. I wondered why he wants me to compose one song and so I asked who was the music director. Then he told me he wanted me to dance and not compose music. I was shocked. I was reluctant to do it. He said, it's a special appearance and he wanted me to do it.

I am a great fan of Prabhu Deva and have danced to his Chikku Bukku Raile as a child. I was thrilled to compose music for his first directorial venture in Telugu Nuvvu Vastanante Nennu Voddantana (NVNV). 

He said I was a good dancer as he has seen me doing stage shows. I thanked him and said, if you think I can do it, I will do it. Out of respect for him, I agreed to do the dance in Vedi.

We shot the song in Kolkata for two days and in Chennai for a day. In Kolkata, the song was shot in popular locations like the Howrah Bridge. In fact, it was difficult to shoot on the Howrah Bridge--we had to stop traffic and run along the centre of the road. People who knew me, Prabhu Deva Master, and Sameera, shouted out our names. 

We were supposed to shoot in Chennai also for two days, but just before that, I was down with severe fever and the song was shot in a day. I shot with the fever, and all the medicines and Electral as the weather and fever were pretty dehydrating. We did a lot of work and the shots turned out well.

Prabhu Deva and Brinda Master choreographed the song. They wanted me to do the steps in my own style to add novelty and make my performance different. There were no rehearsals. We did everything on location.

The whole thing was fun. I enjoy dancing and used to dance from my school days. I did the dance out of respect for Prabhu Deva Master. It was enjoyable. It was amazingly different to work on this.

We have worked together on four films (NVNV, Pournami, Shankardada MBBS and Villu [inTamil]) where I scored the music. Then we used to say, 'take ready!' Here Master said, 'shot ready!'

Sameera told me, "You have great attitude and style. You are cool.'' Prabhu Deva was happy that I did it. Brinda master complimented me saying, "I have worked with so many people but you picked up so fast and managed to do it fast too.''

In fact, I had got several offers to dance from many producers but I refused. I just did this quietly for Prabhu Deva Master and kept it under wraps but somehow the news leaked out. Master told me that he has already got messages from those who saw the film that I was a terrific dancer!