February 08, 2012 Y. Sunitha Chowdhary
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"My dream is to see my compositions on screen which I'm doing now. Rest of what all I get is a bonus, God has given me enough," says Ganesh, the happening choreographer of Telugu movies. The 34 year old man from Medak who hails from a lower middle class family had heated arguments with his parents before leaving his studies to move into films. He learnt dancing from FDC and Dasari gave him his first film as a dancer in Osey Ramulamma.
His career graph zoomed with choreography for Jagadam, Arya 2, Badrinath, Mirapakay, Veera. Now his up and coming films are Nippu, Gabbar Singh, Dammu, Arjun-Trivikram film, Ram movie.
Ganesh avers that it all depends on how soon one wants to become a master, it's not about just teaching steps and even after going home, one has to put in personal interest and update. He adds, "Luck is important too, despite putting in all effort there might not be an opportunity. Competition now is more high, earlier people would take five years to become masters but now you can become one overnight.
Also you should be able to afford to become member of the union which costs around 4 lakh, when I took the card it cost me five thousand. Recently I won a 35 lakh worth villa in the dance competition held for masters, NTR, Prabhudeva, Vinayak were the jury and they told me they would give me a dance each in their films, they kept their promise. NTR gave me Oosaravelli, Vinayak gave me Badrinath and I started moving with hard work and luck."
The dance master says that the song is given to them four or five days in advance to enable them to rehearse and they do it in a closed room. All actors dance well but the fastest dancer he says who picks up movements easily is NTR.
About the competition he adds, "I can never afford to relax, if you take things for granted, don't be alert you are gone..you have to compete with your seniors, existing ones and the upcoming choreographers. One hour is enough to disappear from the industry so you got constantly update yourself.
There are very few women choreographers but all of them are from Chennai. We don't have anyone regular here though we have a couple of them. Though payments are based on the number of dance numbers you have composed, most of them are based on the discussions they have with production houses."
Ganesh is good at composing dances styles that each song demands. He says, "I do western, hip hop, folk, semi classical, slow duets. When I was young I didn't have a tape recorder at home and there was no huge mirror to judge myself, so I would go to the street at 4 am and dance watching the shadow of the street light. When a dance is a hit other actors want me to replicate it but I do a better job and make them happy."
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