Ganesh Acharya opened up recently about the different treatment given to choreographers and technicians in Bollywood and South Indian film industries. He said that Bollywood doesn’t credit choreographers enough and went on to praise Allu Arjun, who gave him credit for choreographing the steps of the Pushpa films.
The choreographer-director opened up on how there is a lot of ‘ego’ in Bollywood and everyone is trying to please stars. During a conversation with Bharti Singh and her husband Haarsh Limbachiyaa on their YouTube channel Bharti TV, Ganesh said, “I have seen several directors and producers, they make big promises behind the star’s back, but once they are before the stars, they go mum. They change the choreography at the last minute to please the stars. They don’t care about the efforts put by the choreographer into making a song. In Bollywood, people only praise a star, they don’t see the efforts put by a director, choreographer or a technician. However, this is not the case down South.”
He added, “In Bollywood, we have a lot of ego. After I choreographed Pushpa songs, Allu Arjun himself called me a couple of days later. He gave me credit. He said, ‘Master ji apke wajah se hua. (This is all because of you.) No Bollywood actor has ever given me credit. But, Allu Arjun praised me so much and said, ‘People are appreciating me because of you.’ He didn’t just stop at that, he even invited me to Hyderabad for Pushpa’s success party. It was not an ordinary party where people drink and dance. They had put a stage, and were awarding technicians. A light man who was part of Pushpa also got an award.”
Ganesh also maintained that he didn’t mean to ‘downgrade’ Bollywood or make complains. “Bollywood taught us a lot and we are who we are because of it, but because of a few people, the environment is getting worse. This needs to be fixed. They need to focus on their technicians and script,” he said.
